Harbinger
by archicane
Summary: The war on Earth Bet is lost. In a desperate gamble, Taylor finds Phir Se. He sends Taylor back in time with a mission to kill Scion and the Endbringers. With her knowledge of the Apocalypse, can Taylor save the world from destruction, or is history doomed to repeat itself?
1. Hemolymph 1-1

1.01 Hemolymph

I stood there shaking, water running down my naked body. Collapsing to the ground, convulsing as the warm water flowed over and pooled around me, I looked around and saw only red.

Blood flowed freely down my bare chest, mixing with my hair. I took a ragged breath and nearly choked on the blood running from my nose. A ringing in my ears drowned out all other sounds. I tried stopping the flow in my nose, but my hands were shaking too much for me to do more than exacerbate it. In my attempt at standing, I only managed to slip in my own blood, hitting the ground hard.

I tried calling out for help to no avail. Mentally, I reached out, and the droning noise in my ears became a cacophony of sound. I pressed my hands to my ears to cover them. They felt warm and wet. Looking at my hands, I saw them covered in blood.

_Was that from my nose, or am I bleeding from my ears too?_

There was too much blood. Way too much. I had never expected this much blood. I would die if I didn't get help. I crawled out the shower towards the door. My vision began to grow dim, until I could barely keep my eyes open. I reached for the phone, body shaking so much that my control was almost nil. Even still, I managed to knock the handset off the hook and mash the numbers '911'.

I reached for the door, and began fumbling with the lock. It was harder than I remembered. The door hadn't been bolted, leaving me to deal with the handle. A round knob on the inside, but the outside had better grip. If the police arrived, a suspiciously open door would be a probable cause to enter the house.

I tried to cry for help to the phone but all that came out was incomprehensible noise. Worse, I couldn't even hear if the call went through. I couldn't hear anything. Not the water splashing around me, nor my own breathing. I tried to think of why, but it made my head hurt worse and my vision grow dark. Bracing my torso up with my arms, they grew weak as my vision dimmed. with my last ounce of strength I managed to prop myself with my back against a wall.

Darkness claimed me.

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My eyes opened to a blurry room. I reached towards my face and found my hand restrained.

_No, not restrained. Encumbered with tubes and wires._

I reached instead with my left hand, held it close to my face and was startled to see it clearly. I moved it away and it was blurry again.

_Right, where are my contacts?_

Assessing my surroundings, I realized I was on a gurney in what looked like a proper hospital. The place looked well used, but still clean. I wasn't on Earth Gimel, that was for sure. There wasn't much left on Earth Bet, so maybe Earth Aleph. A nurse walked in at this point, or at least I thought it was a nurse. She, was only in for a second before walking out again calling for a Doctor Ne-something.

The nurse, a matronly woman with little to no makeup, walked in, followed by a petite woman with straight black hair and a white coat. The doctor picked up my chart as the nurse held a light to my eyes, moving it from one side to the other.

"How are you feeling, Miss Hebert?" the doctor asked. She had a rather husky voice for such a small frame.

"My head hurts," I replied groggily.

_So they know my actual name? Could Lisa have set this up? If so, why isn't she here?_ _For that matter, where are Riley and Amelia? They are the ones who usually patched up the capes like me. _

"You had a nasty incident. Do you remember what happened?" the doctor asked.

I thought back to before the shower, back to the end times against Scion.

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(Venom 29.9)

"I asked to be last for a reason," I told Amelia.

She looked at me and I looked towards the Clairvoyant and Doormaker pair. I pulled on the string I had tied to them and brought them both towards me. Taking hold of their hands, I felt shocked first. Images blasted me, so many earths, with so many itterations.

I tried to focus, discarding the earths until I was only looking at myself. I was still see countless worlds, but I started processing them like I did my bugs, managing to absorb the information without it overwhelming me.

It took another few minutes to gain an understanding of how to search. I tried to focus on individuals rather than settings. A fleeting thought and I was looking at my dad. No not really. This was Daniel Herbert, but this man was not my father. There was no wedding ring, and he held himself differently.

I discarded that thought and tried to refocus, seeking out an answer. I looked for powerful capes, ones that could end this fight. Thinking of the attack by Phir Se, I caught sight of him standing with a collection of other capes, some of them in bright colors, others in civilian clothes, yet all of them looking ragged.

"When was this?" I mused aloud.

"She only sees the now. She can't look back or forward." Tattletale answered without looking up from her screen. She was monitoring the fight just outside the makeshift shelter we were using in the wake of the attacks by Scion.

"Take me there," I said to doormaker. A portal opened before me and we walked through, into the midst of capes who were formed in a half circle, facing towards me and the man I came to see.

"Weaver?" he greeted me.

"Phir Se," I nodded in acknowledgment. "I thought you died in the Behemoth attack on New Delhi."

"The world has no love for me. Death was convenient."

"And after your death you decided to lay low?"

"Indeed."

"How?"

He looked at the Clairvoyant and Doormaker, looked at how I was leading them, and raised an eyebrow.

"It's their abilities. They are essentially blind."

He gazed at me steadily, then waved off the other capes.

"I can walk through time as you know, both backward and forward. To have gone back that day would have cost me the attack you saw against the Behemoth. So instead I walked forward to after he had been slain. From there I called Particulate and we departed."

"And you have survived against Scion for this long without him noticing you?"

"We have only fought to flee. My people work in the shadows. Scion casts light in the darkest of places. We cannot fight him, so instead we take our people and leave when he arrives. Sometimes we go forward, but other times we go back."

"How far back can you go?"

Again he paused to stare at me. I met his piercing gaze with what I hoped was grim determination. I could not imagine the look on my face as he carefully appraised me.

Several minutes passed before he responded.

"I have watched you for some time Weaver. Skitter. Taylor. You…" He paused again as if searching for the words, "made an impression on me. You walked a difficult path. Willing to betray, sacrifice, and murder to stop the monsters of this world. How many friends and allies have you lost when fighting these monsters? How many innocents did you leave to die to win the fights?"

I thought back to Aster. She was still a toddler when I killed her. Had I only known it was Scion, that fight would have been very different. He was right though. I was willing to murder to stop the end of the world.

"I have been watching your actions against the Slaughterhouse 9. You had time to analyze your enemy and find their weaknesses. More still, you defeated an army with only a handful of allies. My daughter once referred to you as Khepri, an Egyptian god with the head of a scarab. The god of bugs, his scarabs moved the sun across the sky. They worshiped him as the god of creation and rebirth. So too were you born anew as Weaver. So to do your bugs move the heavens. You fight the giants of the world, standing against forces well beyond the abilities of a mere beetle - And yet you still stand where they are dead."

He paused again. His face was blank and his gaze far away.

I waited for him to speak, unable and unwilling to rush this. Scion was on Earth Gimmel, tearing through my friends and when they were dead, he would move onto the next group of capes and slaughter them. Even still I had to wait.

"Perhaps in time, you will find a weakness to Scion as well. Perhaps you are Khepri and your scarabs will move this sun in the sky. But more likely, I am a fool for thinking such thoughts as these."

He looked back at the capes that he had sent aside. One was a young girl, maybe thirteen or fourteen. She looked about Vista's height, though had black hair and dark skin. I couldn't tell with her mask, but she looked to have green eyes. Those eyes were fixed on Phir Se, not even taking me into her field of view. I could ask him to do this for his daughter, but he saw through my attempts at currying favor the first time and called me on it. I would have to wait.

"How far back can I send you? How far back will be needed?"

"April 10th, 2011."

A look of sadness crossed his face. I thought rapidly what later dates I could work with, though none of them would be easy.

_June 19th? No I would have lost Jack by then. June 8th? I could kill Jack when he comes to taunt us at Ballistic's. June 4th I could hit him at Theo's. No if he could make it to June 8th how much more difficult would two more months be, plus that date would still leave me at a disadvantage against Coil. Any time between now and after I joined the Wards might work. No even that had to be early on. If it was after the fight against Behemoth, we would have just as much, if not more trouble against the Endbringers._

Before I could come to a decision, he did.

"You will suffer for this."

I tensed, waiting for an attack. The other capes saw my stance and matched theirs to mine.

"I will suffer for this." He said.

He hadn't moved. The Indian capes were still poised ready to strike. _If he moved to attack, could we get a portal between us and them fast enough to escape out of one behind us?_

"I can send you back, but you should know the cost." He continued without waiting for a response. "You wish to travel back two years when I have only ever journeyed a month at most. It will hurt you. You will suffer. You will regress. You will keep your mind but not your abilities. You will have your memories, but not your body. And it will hurt."

He looked towards his daughter without turning back to me and spoke again.

"Me more than you."

He walked forward to the young cape who ran to her father and embraced him. They spoke in tears and in a language I was not familiar with. Hindi? Ordu? I didn't know enough about their culture to even be sure I had just referred to languages let alone ones they might be speaking. He kissed her on the forehead and pushed her back. Turning back to me he walked the distance to where I stood.

"We must go to where you were on this day. The city alone will do, but I cannot move you back between worlds."

I looked with the Clairvoyant for my home. The house was still standing, as were several others on the street. Standing but not livable. A portal opened beside us and we walked through to emerge at the curb in front of my childhood home.

"There will be blood, which you will need to let flow. You will be confused, weak, and not ready for a fight. You will need a day to rest at least, maybe more. The trip might even kill you, but I do not know this for a fact. When will you need to return?"

Maybe earlier? The 11th was when I fought Lung. I would need to be there for that fight, but this time only with the intent to fight Lung. Last time I outed myself as a hero or vigilante, even before I had met Coil. I would need to change my approach. I wasn't about to let him have Dinah either. I could fix everything - Eidolon, the Endbringers, the Slaughterhouse 9. We could push back the end till the fifteen year mark. A year and a half and I had planned enough to cheat my way through the psychos of the 9.

Had I known that Scion would be the destroyer, I could have changed tactics, delayed advances, or moved to slow his involvement. Having known that could have saved lives. Fifteen years combined with the knowledge I possess now, I could do this. I knew how to hurt him, knew who could fight against him successfully. I could get everyone ready to take the fight to him. Maybe I could do it in small groups, sending a few in at a time while he was fighting an Endbringer. It'd be enough to see what he tries to dodge and what he shrugs off. Ok, that might set him off, but I'd have fifteen years to come up with a better plan.

"The 9th. I'm up at 6:30 am with a run for an hour, then in the shower. My family is one for routine and I should be in the shower between 7:30 am and 8:00 am. A day to recover should be fine. We have a very good healer in my city."

I wouldn't need to beat Lung outright, and if I struck hard and fast with the deadliest of my bugs at the beginning, he wouldn't be nearly the threat he was the first time. It could work. I would even have backup from both the Undersiders and Armsmaster when he shows up later if the fight goes on too long.

"The price?" I asked him. "That you pay?"

"I have said my goodbyes. Do not dwell on this. Soon you will say your hellos."

Before I could process his meaning, he squared his stance and thrust both hands at me. I felt the distortion behind me before I could act.

"Be reborn, Khepri."

I fell through.

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I turned to look at the doctor and jumped in surprise.

"Taylor!" my dad exclaimed.

"Dad!" I cried in response. He moved towards me as I reached for him. The doctor stopped him with a hand. Wait, when did my dad get here? I looked about the room and noticed several new faces that weren't there before.

"Amelia?" I asked the freckle faced girl opposite my father at my bedside.

"It's Amy actually. Though you might know me as Panacea."

"Can you tell us anything Miss Dallon?" The doctor asked. Had she said her name? I couldn't remember.

"I don't do brains, but her body is fine. I looked at the CT scans you took. Looks like she was hemorrhaging from the hippocampus. She has some scar tissue there now, but there is nothing I can do about that because- "

" -You won't do brains," I finished for her.

"Well you seem to be able to recognize a few faces and your speech isn't distorted in any way. We are going to run a few more tests to see what else might have been affected."

"What does this kind of damage mean for my daughter?"

I glanced at my dad. He looked haggard and worn. I didn't know the state he might have seen me in. Wait - the police should have found me first. Dad would have left for work by the time I was back in the shower. Or would he? I knew he had an odd schedule with the Dockworkers Union. Would he have been at the house when I dialed 911? Well, that could be explained away if he was. The front door too.

"The hippocampus controls memories. The mind's ability to both remember events and the ability to produce new memories are what we would be concerned with. Given that she can recognize you, Mr Hebert, is a good sign. But as I said we will need to keep her for observation before we can make a complete diagnosis."

I noticed Amy was still looking at me. I turned to her and took her hand.

"You healed me?" I asked.

"Not really, I can't heal brains. All of your bleeding was from the hippocampus. All I did was clean out blood from your nose and ears. You had a few other bruises and a fractured hand that had healed wrong. I cleaned up those few issues and started your body to produce more blood to make up for the blood loss. But no, I didn't heal you when you first came in. I wasn't here for that. Anyway the bleeding stopped on its own." She replied, still looking at me oddly.

"Thank you anyway. You are a true hero."

I tried to make that statement sound as sincere as I could. I don't think she believed me. Could she tell a lie by reading signs through her powers? Well, yes, but I thought that I was being honest when I said that.

Before I could talk any further, my dad put his hand on my arm and I turned to embrace him. I hadn't seen my dad in… I couldn't remember the last time I had seen _him_. He would have been there for my graduation from the Protectorate, had that not been interrupted by the Slaughterhouse 9,000. I hadn't even known if he had survived the attacks by Scion. I had kept myself woefully ignorant, not wanting to know for sure. But now, here he was. Safe and sound and none the wiser of my dark deeds. Unaware that I had killed. Ignorant that I was a had lived a life as a super villain or as a hero.

Maybe that's why Amelia had been looking at me funny, I realized in a panic. She won't change the brain yet, but that doesn't mean she can't look at mine and see where it enlarged to account for my powers. Well I will have to be extra careful around her then. Maybe try and mislead her a bit, using my powers to make them look like something else? No - probably best to just not do anything around her. Besides there are a few female capes in Brockton Bay that aren't villains.

Ok, so really just the one that she might not know. Well this shouldn't change too much then, would it? …Could it?

The nurse was reading the machines that I was plugged into and had said something when I wasn't paying attention.

"What was that?" I asked.

"I was saying that we will need you to stay for observation for the rest of the day before we are ready to release you. You will need to rest for a while longer until we can clear you."

"She should be fine in a few hours. Her body has enough blood back in it for her to function. She should still try not to move around too much as she won't be at 100% for another 18 to 24 hours."

"We will still need to run several cognitive skill tests to be sure that there isn't any complications with her brain. Thank you for your help, Miss Dallon. Now we could use your help with a Mr Daniels in the ICU…" The doctor was still speaking as she lead Amelia out.

I never saw her much when she wasn't fixing up dying capes, running from the S9, or staring me down in a bank I was robbing. Well it looked like I wasn't going to see her often now anyway. Currently, my father was talking with the nurse. They had moved a bit away to give me some space to rest. I liked the attempt at privacy. It let me relax a bit. I stretched out and began taking stock of myself.

My arm was back, or I hadn't lost it yet, would be the more accurate. I was the younger me, my limbs were shorter and muscles less toned. I didn't have a mirror, nor my glasses so I couldn't see my face. I felt shorter too. And damnit, I was back down to an A cup if that. Not that I had ever fully filled a B cup, but still.

Next, I reached out to my swarm. I had terrible control over them when I was in the shower, but then again, I hadn't been able to stand well either. Stretching out, I felt their bodies react as I touched their minds. At first it was just the few in the walls of the room, but then I could feel the ones in the next room and the one next to that and the one next to that and so on. I had the full feel of the building in seconds and I kept pushing beyond. I felt the bugs in the trees and in the ground outside. I felt the ones in the sewers beneath the street and kept pushing. The bugs in the nearby buildings were within my grasp. I pushed further. The buildings next to those and the ones next to those held more and more. I could just start to feel the ones in the trees by that street when I reached my limit.

Crap. My range was nothing like it used to be. At the height of my powers I could stretch up to six blocks. I was starting over again at one. Well at least I knew that I could build up my powers and range. On top of all that I already knew how to do all the tricks I had come up with over the years. Laying string, building clones, setting up detection grids, striking a match and marching them down on a woman covered in gasoline, etc. But did I remember how to hear and speak?

I tried focusing on the conversation my father was having with the nurse. Nothing but unintelligible murmuring. Well, it was better than the first time I tried it. Talking was a bit better. I couldn't get them to annunciate, but the cadence was fine and certain consonants came out very clear. I still had a lot of trouble with the soft sounds that would require lips, and I did have to devote all of my focus to creating the words. The humming and clicking didn't quite get the right sounds for some of them. Again something that I could work on over time and build back up to. My control was slower too. I didn't have the dexterity I had towards the end. By all accounts my powers had been reset. Not the end of the world. Well not yet at least.

The end of the world…

How the hell was I supposed to come up with a plan to defeat Scion. The immortal god that gave us all our abilities. Well, lets take things one step at a time. I had to kill Jack. I had to kill the Endbringers. Before the Endbringers, I had to kill Eidolon. He only came out for the big disasters, like the Endbringer attacks. All three had come into Brockton Bay. If I left events to play out like the first time, I'd have a chance to strike at all three in a span of only a mere two weeks or so. Ok so how do I kill them?

Well Jack would surprisingly be the easiest. After facing down the 9,000 I shouldn't have any trouble with only 7 of 9. Really though, if I set a bomb off in his lap that should leave too little for Riley to put back together. Leviathan I would have to go the same route we did for Behemoth. Chop him up into little bits, then destroy his core. He might even be easier than Behemoth. We could trap him in the city and Clock-block his escape routes. He might even kill himself on time-frozen strings on his way out. That left Eidolon. Well he let himself be killed by Scion when he heard the truth. I doubt he would believe me if I said it, but maybe I could get Cauldron to do it for me. Then again, I could try catching him by surprise when he's transitioning between powers. Could work. Might have to work on that plan though. For now I would need to get out of here and get to Lung. Might be a long day.

And with that the nurse set to asking me questions. By the nature of them, I figured I was going to be in for a long day.


	2. Hemolymph 1-2

1.02 Hemolymph

The next three hours in the hospital weren't so bad. The nurse just asked a lot of questions, trying to get an idea of what I could and couldn't remember. I had a bit of trouble with that, mostly because she was asking about the past week of events, which were kind of hazy. Not because I actually had memory problems, but because last week happened two years ago. My dad was worried at that, but because I could still process memories and make new ones, they were optimistic. The final prognosis was that the hemorrhaging likely blurred or erased some memories, which I was unlikely to get back. Probably not the right diagnosis, but they were operating under the false assumption that I hadn't just time traveled. I could see how they could make that mistake. For now, though, I was told to rest and work on memory games to keep my mind sharp, I was given a week off of school to recuperate, and told to check back in with them should I have any memory problems. I could certainly make use of that time to further things here in the city.

I had my eyes set on Lung and Coil. Lung was the more immediate threat, but Coil would be the deadlier of the two. They each had their weakness, though, with a time when they were most vulnerable. I had to wait for the right time to strike, play a role for a time by acting as a villain to get close to Coil again.

It might be better to go the hero route this time, but I would need the freedom to do what I needed done. On top of that, I would need to kill several capes and pull a lot of other highly illegal stunts. If my plans worked out I would be risking a kill order or three.

Well it would have to do. To save the world, I might have to be the bad guy. That shouldn't be much of a problem for me, after all, I had done so for less.

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I felt rather cheery as I perused the aisles of the retail store. I knew I needed supplies, so after dad had dropped me off at home, I had checked my bank account online and had a bit of a shock. At the height of my criminal enterprising, I had nearly 14 million in liquid assets. My current funds were in the realm of $235.89. So here I was, spending what little I had. There is a saying, you have to spend money to make money. Well I was going to have to spend money to take money today.

No, I wasn't going to rob the retail store, nor would I be hitting up any banks today either. I had actually come to the store for ziploc bags and art supplies, among other things. We had the small ones at the house for sandwiches, but I needed the heavy duty ones for the job I had planned. I still had a few kinks to plan around, but I had the gist of it down, and the plastic bags would help a bit.

The bigger issues would be transportation. I could walk there and back without issue, and given my abilities, I wouldn't even need to be that near to the scene to get what I needed done. The issue would be moving the money once I got it, as I had no way of knowing how much I'd come away with. Last time, we had a pile of bags that we split between the lot of us. I didn't see the actual denominations in the bags, but I had assumed it was a bit. I would also be going in a little unprepared, without a costume or my mask, but that was part of the plan too. Were I to dress like a cape, then it would be obvious I'd be the one robbing them. I also didn't want to make too big a show of my powers, namely I didn't want anyone knowing what I could actually do. When I had turned myself in, the late Director Tagg had given me a level two in every classification. He was right that I was versatile, as you wouldn't think that 'controls bugs' would be all that great of a power, but those level two bumps across the board, from a PRT official who still underestimated me, does say something about my abilities.

My versatility would be a great asset in the early stages of this game, when I was solo and still lacked the range I had become used to. I still remembered how to set drag lines and tie capes to objects or one another. I had used that tactic a lot as Weaver and intended to keep using it till I found something better, or someone found a counter to it. I could also post my bugs at the joints of arms and legs to get a full view of an opponent without having to even look at them. I had spent a lot of time training with the Chicago Wards like that, enough that I could be just as lethal at close combat as I could from range. With that last one alone, I could play as a whole new cape, should the need arise. I wasn't planning on doing that exactly, but it's good to have a backup plan.

I grabbed my ziplock bags and headed to the school supplies section. I had also planned on making a few alterations to my costumes. I wanted to do simple things that could be used to disguise my body type or gender. Again I had plans, backup plans, and backup plans for the backup plans formulating. Nothing concrete, but ideas that I was developing. Googly eyes wouldn't work for any of those, but Glitter maybe. Sequins could, if applied correctly, but paints would be the best all around fix. Feathers? Ha! That would throw off any ideas of being a bug girl, but pink wouldn't be all that great for instilling fear or respect. Maybe if I tried out as a hero, I could try out the pink, but no, I think not. Paints and glitter would have to do for now.

I also grabbed a few party masks for a quick cover. While I didn't plan on going out in costume, a simple mask with my hair in my face and my hood up would help to keep a casual glance from identifying me.

"Can I help you with anything?"

I looked up at the older gentleman in a red shirt and khakis. His name tag labeled him as Alex.

"Hoodies?" I asked.

"Clothing is down this aisle and to the right. Head down a ways past the baby clothes and the women's casual wear should be right there." He replied with a genial smile.

"Thank you" I said, returning the smile. I walked over to the backpacks.

He watched me with an enigmatic smile this time.

"Sorry, I had just remembered I would need a new hoodie, but I wasn't done here yet."

"That's fine I'll be around if you need anything," he replied, before he turned and walked at a leisurely pace to a woman and her young son.

I looked through the bags on the rack. Mine was still new because I had to get a new one from the last time Emma had gotten bored. I didn't want to spend too much on another bag right after I had just gotten one, but I didn't want to be tracked down by anyone should they find a backpack with stolen money and school books with my name and return address on it. That would just be too dumb. I made a mental note not to do anything too stupid today, then quickly realized I was making plans to do exactly that. Well, ok, so maybe I would amend that to not make any stupid mistakes like keeping the receipt.

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I had taken the bus to a stop as close as I could to my destination, hopped off, and started walking. Once in an alley, between a rundown old drugstore and what must have been a pet store, I started sorting my purchases. All the art supplies, I put in a ziplock, the basic party masks in another. I covered my face with my hair and then put my hood up.

I stuffed the supplies into an air duct for the pet store and had roaches ferry it further out of sight and reach. They were a little sluggish, having trouble with getting a good grip on the plastic. I had a few spiders from the eaves descend and wrap the bags a few times with the treads trailing for the roaches. That provided a better handle for them, and within minutes the art supplies were safely stashed.

That wouldn't be so hard to do with the money once I had it. After all it's not like I could just deposit it all in my bank account. I would seem a little odd for a fifteen year old girl to suddenly have a couple hundred thousand. There were contingencies set in place to identify capes like that, one of them was the Numbers Man, and he wasn't someone I could trust just yet.

I grabbed the backpack with ziplocks and started out again, gathering my bugs. After the practice with the art supplies, I added several spiders to my swarm, which was mostly made up of very tiny bugs. An army of mosquitoes, gnats, and a few flies were spread loosely so as not to draw attention.

After walking a bit I realized I wasn't showing any of my face, and probably looked like the girl from The Ring. I knew I wasn't going to be identified, but covering up like that was just as much a giveaway as wearing a mask. I found a shattered window and checked my reflection. My hair was covering my face and I set about fixing that. My mouth was made visible with my eyes just barely screened. I wouldn't need to see with them, nor would there be anything to see if everything went to plan. Part of that plan was keeping a building or two between me and my target.

These weren't any pushovers and I didn't want to get caught in a fight with them. Sure, I would win, but not without outing myself as Skitter? No. Weaver? No Weaver was essentially dead. Weaver had fought and lost against Scion. Khepri was what Phir Se had called me. I had looked it up when I was waiting for my dad to leave again. Google noted that the scarabs moved dung balls around. The notion of the sun came from the way their dung balls were pushed between their antennas. Drawing them out it would look like a disk, which was a symbol of royalty, or holiness, or maybe I would need to google it again. I knew though that I didn't want to be the dung beetle, even if it was a god. I'd rather be a queen anyway. What was it the Faerie Queen had called me? The queen administrator? Well that's a mouthful. Queen Bee? No. Spider Queen. No. I'd have to take a bit more time tonight coming up with a name. I didn't want to have some other cape label me again.

I would have to think about that more later. Eight blocks of abandoned buildings to my destination. I wasn't two in and I was already being followed. A guy had passed by an alley and had started pacing me. He was a big guy, but I had taken down bigger. Lung among them. I realized, though how vulnerable I actually was. I hadn't hit the army surplus store yet. I had in mind to do that with a wad of cash and just go crazy with it. All I had available was my pepper spray. I wanted to hold off on using bugs anywhere near here. It had worked on Lung and wouldn't point to a cape being involved.

Instead, gave him the slip. I passed through an intersection, letting him see me moving. I stopped, once through, and went back, crossing behind him when he wasn't paying attention. I took the street on his opposite side, and started pacing him instead. Two intersections later, he realized he had lost me, but didn't seem to be bothered by it. He kept on his way which seemed to still be in the direction I was heading.

I didn't recognize him as any cape in the area. My musings ended when he entered what might have been an abandoned textile warehouse. I searched the facility before he was far in. Nothing of interest really. There were three kids in a room upstairs with a woman I took to be the mother. I checked the guy who did have a knife on him, but wasn't doing anything with it. He found a bathroom on the first floor and I put him out of my mind. Soon enough, he was out of my range too.

A block was all I had right now. I had been pushing out ever since I had first found my limit. I'd treat it like a muscle and work it out every second I was awake. I had gotten it maybe another twenty feet. Not much, but it was an improvement, and twenty feet over five hours or so wasn't so bad. At that rate I could get it up to 500 feet a week. If I remembered my powers, though I had growth spurts when I was in danger. My biggest one against Leviathan where I doubled my range from two to four. I would be working on finding a way to get self replicating relay bugs, but until then I would just have to exercise more.

I kept pushing and while doing so, was bringing in some sturdier bugs. Sadly, it's mostly roaches that are readily available in abandoned areas. The spiders variety is nicer, but there weren't many black widows. Not that I planned on fighting Lung right now, but I had planned on making contingencies and had two dozen of them on me along with a dozen brown recluse and a few millipedes. Those weren't poisonous, but they would creep people out more than the spiders I thought.

Soon enough I had a swarm ready to move in. Looking at the street sign, I was near enough to my destination. Whitmore and Regal. Sunset would be the next street over. Nothing regal about this area, posted up by a dumpster near the intersection. I wanted as many routes of escape as possible. Plan A called for me to casually walk out of the area back the way I had come. The intersection would be required for plans B, C, D, and E.

I searched my immediate area and checked my range. I could feel the far side of the warehouse and then some. Next I shifted focus to my own area. Empty buildings for the most part. Four thugs in an empty building watching TV to the south. Added security I guess. Attacking them was out of the question. Even binding the doors shut with string could lead back to me, no I wanted this to be a clean crime, without a fight.

I kept scanning using my "stealth" bugs. I already knew the lay of the facility from the time we hit it with the rest of the local villains. Sure enough, there was a group of naked workers on the ground floor. Unfortunately I also spotted Lung. Well, like I said I wasn't planning on fighting him today anyway. I moved my bugs up to the second floor. In the side room behind a locked door, I found what I was looking for. A lone woman was sitting counting money. Piles of it.

My roaches started climbing the insides of the walls up to the office. A black widow was already in the building and was moving to join the roaches. I watched the money counter for a time and checked her for weapons. She had a small knife, but from the taste of it, she wasn't using it for defense. I had a few other spiders start threading it closed in its sheath. When my black widow arrived, I had her crawl up to the counter. I placed her on one of the stacks and waited. The woman moved to grab the next stack with my spider on it and I struck.

My black widow jumped off the stack and started crawling towards her. Before she jumped out though I had a mosquito bite her palm. To the woman, she will likely think she has just been bitten by a black widow. Yep, her screaming confirmed it. I got to watch her in a slight panic as she realized what this meant. She grabbed a cloth and tied off her wrist. Smart, I'll give her that. She then stepped out of the office, locking the door behind her. Just what I was hoping for. I would have a small window of opportunity to move all the money before she had a replacement, if there was to be one. A smart villain wouldn't leave the money unattended for long.

In waiting for the black widow to attack, I had several hundred roaches already poised and ready to move. I sent all of them. They swarmed the table. Each set about grabbing what they could. Many grabbed the loose bills and scurried back into the wall dropping off their cargo and returning for more. I could move the money down the wall easy enough, even if she found a replacement counter in the next few minutes.

That wasn't all that likely as Lung had overheard her talking to an average sized man. I set my focus again to my roaches and started grouping them together to push the money, stacks and all, off the table and onto the floor. Several bills scattered and I sent a few roaches to collect them. The rest started lining up to drag the stacks into the wall. They had finished before the argument downstairs was resolved. She must have been important because Lung let her leave. During the conversation I had checked her pockets to find her keys. I had stolen them and dragged them under a table. The door should stay locked until Lung lost his temper and tore it down. Meanwhile, my swarm kept working.

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Only four bags of money?! That was so unfair. How the hell were there only four bags of money this time? Maybe it was an off week? It shouldn't be. Last time they were twice as much and that was with the pressure the other villians of the city were exerting on the ABB. Well I'd just have to come back again. Kinda like I had planned anyway. Steal the money and not the product. I wasn't in a position to stop the drug trade right now anyway. Well, aside from reporting the warehouse and seeing the capes and cops descend to make arrests. But again, I had planned on coming back to raid it a few more times. Besides, it wasn't like I'd actually be selling drugs, I'm just stealing from the sellers after they sell their product. I'm like Robin Hood. I was-

"GET OUT THERE AND FUCKING FIND HER!"

Oh shit; That would be Lung. I looked out from my post by the dumpster. Naked bodies were pouring out of the warehouse all carrying small arms and improvised weapons. A rather comical sight if it weren't for the dragon marching them out and already on fire. Well I had the money. With the ziplock bags, I could stash it like I planned in various holes too small or obscure for a person to find. The problem was I was planning on stashing it farther from their territory than a block away and next to a dumpster. Worse yet this area didn't have any places only my bugs could get to. Well, the dumpster of course, but that's still rather a dicey spot. No telling when it might be emptied and that would be one of those stupid mistakes I told myself I wasn't going to make.

"SPREAD OUT!"

Time for plan B. Run!

And I ran. I had a head start on Lung and should be far enough away from him to be sure he wouldn't hear me, even with superior senses, if he had them now. I didn't even have a line of sight to the building to get spotted by the naked ABBs. What I didn't expect was Oni Lee.

I saw him from the corner of my eye on the roof of a building. He stared me down as I passed by. I had my hood up and face covered. I was doubtful he could ID me, but running would tip him off. Worse I wasn't even in costume to protect against his sneak attacks. I had left it at home thinking if I was stopped by a cop, cape, or villain, all they would find was a scrawny white girl out for a jog with a backpack of art supplies and ziplock bags. Nothing to worry about right.

I hadn't prepped for a fight. No knife. No baton. No killer arachnids or capsaicin laced flies of doom. I had been prepping strings, but with Lung already on fire those would go up in smoke if I tried them on him. Oni Lee would just pop out. He was the reason I hadn't had much warning. He had popped into the room I had just robbed and popped back to Lung in a matter of seconds to report. Me, trying to be discreet hadn't been able to see him in either location till my bugs detected his ash cloud.

Figures in my path stopped me up short. Three ABB's were blocking the alleyway. That must have been why Oni Lee didn't just kill me. These three were young and seemed kinda skittish. They were still clothed, so they hadn't come from the warehouse so…. Oh! I tasted the ash again. That was smart. He was popping groups of thugs out in a perimeter. Looking for me. Wait how would Lung had even known the thief was a she? Oh, he must have thought it was the woman who was counting that stole the money. Ok so they aren't looking for me then maybe they just found a girl and thought to randomly attack her. Really not as bad as it sounds.

They moved to grab me and I didn't resist. Oni Lee might be watching and I needed to ping him before I made a move.

"Feng check her bag," The skinny boy with the pixie cut said. I only realized he was a boy by the voice. Too deep to be a girl. I still had my hood up, my hair covering my face, and the temp mask. Well, that might tip them off, but at least they wouldn't see my face. Also wouldn't give them any real way of IDing me when I was out as a cape.

The girl moved forward around the big and fat one to get my bag. I still had time before she could get it opened. I kept still and looked for Oni Lee. I also started tagging everyone in a block radius and running breakaway lines at the perimeter of my range. Still nothing.

"What the fuck is taking so long xiǎo rìběn?" The skinny one asked again. He was getting edgy and was fingering the knife in his back pocket. The girl was still fumbling with the zipper. She wouldn't be able to get through without taking a knife to it. I had a black widow knit the double zipper shut when I spotted them. She would either have to use his knife to cut the bag open or give it up as a lost cause.

"It's stuck," she said, almost in a panic.

The fat one moved her out of the way and grabbed the bag, me with it, and tore the fabric. The plastic bags full of money poured out onto the ground. Four heavy duty bags and those weren't small bills either I realized belatedly.

"Jackpo- ahhh!"

I didn't let him finish. I stuck hard and fast, hitting the skinny one in the groin and grabbed his knife as he doubled over. I swung around to catch the fat one across his stomach before he could pull his gun I had tied to his belt. The girl grabbed at her knife and rolled back when I swung at her. She was quicker than I was, naturally at least. I could still get a quicker sense from the mosquitoes I had posted on their bodies. The skinny one charged me in a half hobble and a rather weak roar. I spun low and to my right to keep skinny between me and the fat one. As he passed, I came full about and stabbed him in the back of his thigh. He went down with a shrill cry. Fat guy was fumbling with his belt to get his gun free. The girl did the most sensible thing and screamed for help.

In seconds I could feel spider strings breaking as half a dozen thugs started moving towards us. I grabbed the bags of money and the half torn backpack and bolted. I started filling the alleys with flies and mosquitoes. Not in dense swarms, but loosely spaced to get a feel for the areas yet still not noticed. I knew what would be coming and would need to be ready to strike in an instant.

A gunshot went off. The fat guy had gotten the gun out and shot a round in the air. If the girl screaming wouldn't get attention the gun would. A girl screaming means victim. A gun going off meant a fight.

Nothing to do about it now except head for a more public place. The problem with raiding a drug house like this one, was that the nearest public place was still a ways away. I had at least three blocks before I would be passing any buildings that weren't abandoned and another 4 before I was out of ABB territory. The safest route would be to the Bay and the Boardwalk. Not that they wouldn't follow me there, but hitting the boardwalk in any public way would be bad for their business too. I thought about heading towards the Undersiders loft, but they weren't prepared to take on an assault of ABB members. White girl chased by Asians in Kaisers territory would get me help if I threw out a few racial slurs and obscenities on principal alone. That would work till they checked my bag, then I'd be worse off. No, I was going to have to lose them in a 7 block game of cat and mouse. I could normally play this game very well, but with an opponent that could pop in with any number of reinforcements, including Lung, I was at a bit of a disadvantage. Well, if you can't go forwards, try going back.

I ducked down an alley and climbed in through a broken window. I could feel twenty some thugs converging on the three would be attackers. They were speaking a language I didn't. They seemed to be speaking in multiple languages when I paid more attention. Skinny seemed to know Mandarin, but the ones that had met up with him didn't. Was that Japanese or Taiwanese. Moot point as they got frustrated and switched to English.

"That bitch hit me in the dàn and took off that way," he said pointing in the direction I would have been running.

"Hien? You're sure?"

"No it was a white girl. She had a pack with the money in it. She has his blade now too." That would be the fat one. He was still clutching his stomach.

"Shit, Lung wants her dead. Go back and tell Lung it's not Hien. We go find this girl and bring her back. Alive."

Hey that's great they want me alive. That should make things easier.

The rest of the thugs moved off looking for me. I waited a bit longer till the first three started walking back to Lung. I stepped out of the building and kept pace with them. Fat one had to help Skinny walk. He had stuffed his gun in the back of his pants. The girl had her knife out this time and was holding it with a white knuckled grip. I waited till they had rounded the corner and was out of eyesight when I started sprinting. I closed the distance in a matter of seconds. I hit the fat guy in the back of the head with the butt of the knife. As he was going down I grabbed the gun and pressed it to the girls head.

"Drop it" I said with a gravelly voice. I didn't want her to recognize my voice in some chance encounter down the road to get me in trouble. I had been attacked once by Emma and her crew when they recognized my voice. Actually that was tomorrow. Is tomorrow? Will be tomorrow? No I'm going to Boston tomorrow.

Feng was rigid. I cocked the gun and released the safety. At that she dropped the knife. Skinny was pinned under his buddy and couldn't see us.

"Move" I said as I pushed her on a route perpendicular to the path the other group had taken searching for me.

She started walking with small tight steps. When we passed her knife I stooped to pick it up and she tried twisting to grab the gun. I felt her tensing before she moved and was already moving to counter. My gun hand pulled back to my side and out of her reach and my empty hand closed on her knife. She had tried turning to grab the gun and I let her finish her turn before springing up with the knife in hand at her throat.

"That's two, on three you die. Turn around and walk."

She looked pissed. She must have really thought she could have grabbed that gun from me. Might have been what she had planned when she dropped the knife. Unfortunate for her that the game was rigged. It was a good try on her part.

She gave me a death glare. I slid the knife ½" across her throat. She pulled back quickly. I nodded in the direction and she turned around again to walk. I sent my bugs in to check her pockets, and while I was at it, the pockets of the other two as well. Cell phones, wallets and keys were pulled out. I picked up the phones and wallets with spider silk lines. The keys, I had a few bugs drag out of sight. I kept the gun pointed to her and stayed just out of her reach. We marched north a block, then west a block opposite my original exit route. North one. West another. After the third block I stopped her.

"Kneel facing the wall."

She did, but had started shaking.

"This is what gang life is. You mess with the wrong bitch and you die."

She was openly crying. Her shoulders were shaking with ragged sobs. I opened her wallet and took her ID. Feng Zhen. She was 21 from her drivers license and also had a college ID. I took the ID and cash, but left her cards.

"Do you want to die in some ally like this Feng?" She was still sobbing. "Answer me," I said in a perfectly level voice.

"Nnnnn nnnn no," she stutter sobbed out.

"You're a college student, why die like this?"

She let out another sob. "I flunked out. It… school…."

"Out with it," I said, still calm and level.

"It was hard!" she wailed

"Life is hard. Death is easy. I pull this trigger. You die. Easy," I said, cool like ice. She was a wreck.

"I'm going to give you a choice. You can go the easy way. Or you can go the hard way. Do you want to die?"

"NO! No nonononononono!"

"I have your name. I have your address. I'll be checking on you. If I find you aren't back in school on my next visit…."

"I'll do it, I'll go back, I'll study harder I swear! I'll never join another gang! And and I won't tell anyone about you, just please don't kill me!"

She was still making promises when she was out of my range. I had traveled 3 blocks north three blocks west which put me further into their territory, but out of their search grid. With my attack on the trio that first accosted me, they should also still be looking for Hien. I should be good to just walk straight out now.

By now I,d had my spiders seal my backpack back up. I also took off my mask and stuffed it in the bag. I still kept my hood up and my face hidden, but for the next 11 blocks I should be able to walk unmolested back to a bus stop. Actually, now that I thought about it, I was closer to one if I kept heading west, away from the bay. I would come across the line for the train yard in only 6 blocks. I'd have to take that to the bay line to get back to where I started, but I was planning on spending the money at the army surplus store, among others, and that was south, away from the docks and bay.

Before coming up to the bus stop I stayed in the alley and sorted my cash. I took out one of the ziplock bags, and after feeling out the area, found a void in one of the walls obscure enough to hide a bag in. I had my spiders tie off an end and my roaches ferry the bag away.

With that done I opened another bag and counted out $5,000. That should be enough for today's shopping and then some. The rest I would bury where needed. All in all, a job well done. On to the next shopping trip, and maybe get more art supplies. With the cash I had in hand, I wouldn't need to worry about the loss of the first set. It would be easier to just buy more supplies than head back to where I stashed them earlier.


	3. Hemolymph 1-3

1.03 Hemolymph

Shopping was going to be a bit more fun this time. I had already resupplied at an arts and crafts store, and this time I had found a better selection. After, I had stashed the rest of the money at separate spots along the bus route that would take me to the Amtrak Station.

Upon entering the Army Surplus store, I made my way to grab a cart and started to shop. I grabbed a camelbak, a compass, a pair of M17 first aid kits, flashlights, a headlight, a multi tool kit with a hex head and square head screwdriver, a case of MRE's, a can of cooking fuel, water purification pills, concealed carry holster for my new gun, a set of throwing knives, the crowbar knife I had in the first timeline, a pair of spring loaded steel batons (also similar to my first one), two more clips for the gun with a box of bullets to match, a gun cleaning kit and manual, handcuffs, multiple cans of pepper spray, a short stun gun, a ranged stun gun, a lighter, matches, a flint striker, several carabiners, a rappelling harness, a wire saw, night vision binoculars, two packs of light sticks, an emergency survival kit, a whistle, a fire blanket, and a heavy duty backpack with a chassis to help carry some of the supplies.

At the checkout counter I realized I wasn't going to be able to carry all of it. I had to put back the MRE's, first aid kit, and survival kit, but vowed to return with a car next time.

The clerk was watching me go about this without saying a word. He was a grizzled older man in his 60's. He had white hair that was shaved close to his head to mask the balding. He was still fit though and was wearing a shirt that showed it. It wasn't until I started putting back items that he spoke up.

"We have a website." There was no intonation in his voice. It was completely flat. "You can shop there and have some of these things delivered. It might be less conspicuous."

I turned to look at him with a level stare. "You think I'm being conspicuous."

"Ask no questions, hear no lies. Your total is $1,356.89, will that be cash or credit?"

"Cash," I replied.

"Would you like a bag?"

"Can you help me fit it in the backpack?" I asked.

"Won't all fit, but I'll get most of it in. You may need separate bags for the rest."

"Thats fine."

He set to stuffing the bag. He did manage to get everything in, but in the end that wasn't so much the problem. The issue was the weight. Lastly, he handed me a card. I checked it over and it had a website address on it.

"Young girl like you buying up all this combat gear might draw attention. Plus I can't see you carrying out the cases of MRE's on your own."

I didn't say anything as I grabbed the rest of my purchases. He was right about carrying all this out on my own though. The MRE's aside, I was still a scrawny 15 year old. He helped me put the pack on, but after I took three steps, I had to take it off.

"Think you can call me a cab?" I asked.

"Would you also like those MRE's now too?"

"If I can get the cabbie to help unload, I'll take the shelf."

"Ill call the cab company and ring you up those cases with the survival and first aid kits."

"Thank you."

"Do you know something I don't kid?"

I turned back to look at him. Should I warn the general populace that Leviathan was bearing down on the city. Should I tell him that the Slaughterhouse 9 was coming to follow up, or that Scion would end the world two years later?

"The ABB is trying to expand again. Looks like a turf war with the Empire. I live in the middle. Just looking to prepare myself. Think you can help get this to the cab?"

"Sure thing. The total is $956.75. Cash again?"

I paid him the rest and walked outside to wait for the cab. I didn't have long to wait. When he got there I had him load up and went back to get the clerk. When he was walking out I found a pen and another card.

I tapped the pen to the card a few times. I couldn't. I had to play this game close to the chest, and I couldn't offer any aid ahead of time. I knew how she operated and I couldn't say anything or even write it down. Too risky. To much chance events would differ too much if I did. I was banking a lot on things sticking to the original timeline and if I start making too many changes, then I won't be able to predict what happens.

I walked out to the cab and moved to tip the clerk for the help.

"No thanks kid, I'm just making sure you're safe."

"And I'm doing the same for you. Keep the MRE's well stocked. This turf war could get ugly."

I hopped in the cab and told the driver my address, but asked him to stop first a block away. No sense in having my dad catch me with all this stuff when I could scan the house first to see if he was home and adjust accordingly.

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We stopped twice before I made it home. The first for a phone call. I had taken the batteries out of the phones from my attackers when I took them. The boys would have needed medical attention before they canceled their phones. Feng might have closed her line, but her phone was easy to pick out from the boys.

I dialed out the number. 1-857-366-5546.

"Hello?" a woman answered.

"I would like to make an appointment for a meeting tomorrow morning," I said, keeping my voice level and aiming for a more formal selection of words.

"I'm sorry, but this is my personal phone. Who is this and how did you get this number?"

"You may call me Harbinger and I received this number from an associate of yours."

"Very well Harbinger. And the nature of your visit?" All professional now that I used a cape's name?

"I will be arriving tomorrow to discuss matters of an S class threat. I will be coming alone."

"I'm afraid that will be unacceptable. My employer is a very particular man and his schedule will not allow him to make such concessions for an individual under a borrowed name."

Well somebody had the Parahumans Wiki site open.

"This pertains to an S class threat in your area. Your employer is currently in danger. I'd advise you find him the time."

"If this is an S class threat, why are you not reporting this to the Protectorate? This does not sound like anything we will be willing or able to handle."

"This is not a threat the Protectorate is designed to handle. Furthermore the PRT is compromised and I'm afraid they will be otherwise unable to handle this threat. The finer details, however I will only be able to discuss in person, tomorrow afternoon. You have my number. Text me the time and the address of your offices. Goodbye.

Before she could respond I hung up the phone and took out the battery. I would need a few more things before tomorrow. I'd need to head into Boston a little early and get a dress, shoes, and head to a beauty salon to get fixed up. I would need to look pristine and frankly I wasn't too good at making myself look pretty.

I had spent most of my days wearing a mask and fighting or training to fight capes. Glen, my PR Rep, had me change my image as a cape, but out of costume, well I didn't really spend much time out of costume. At least I didn't spend much time out in public. Down time was spent training with Theo or the other Chicago wards, mass producing spider silk costumes, sitting on stakeouts, or researching the S9. Not much of a social life admittedly. Not that I was likely to amend that any time soon either. This would be a business call, not a social one.

The cab driver was still idling. I climbed back in and had him continue. Less than a block away, I had him stop again. He must really be hating me with these random stops. Oh well, nothing to do about it.

I reached out to check my surroundings. I stretched forward to my house and didn't find any cars. Dad was still out with the dockworkers then. Things should be improving for him soon, labor wise at least. I had big plans for this city. Those though, would need to wait. Tonight I would be working on new masks and temporary alterations to my costume. Oh and dinner.

We continued on and upon arriving at my house, I had the cabbie help me unload, bringing the heavy stuff down to the basement. I had put my gun in the holster right in front of him before we started this so he wouldn't get any bright ideas. Not saying he was the type to do something foolish, but I didn't want him to think it was even an option.

After everything was in the basement and relatively hidden, I paid the fare with a little extra for the help. I had a few hours before dinner so I started in with the art supplies. I planned on making a new mask that would still cover all of my face, but one that looked nothing like the one I would use in combat. This one needed to be simple yet elegant. It would need to show complexity without being overbearing or gaudy. It would also need to work with a little black dress.

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I had finished my mask and was halfway through cooking dinner when my dad showed up.

"Hey there kiddo."

"Hey dad!" I replied while stirring the pasta.

"You seem rather chipper tonight. You enjoy your day off from school?"

"Dad its a Saturday, but yes, I had a nice day today."

"Oh yeah whatcha do?"

"I took a walk down to the bay, spent some time people watching on the boardwalk. Then I went and picked up some art supplies. I still have an art midterm that I'll need to turn in when I get back to class. I was working on it a bit, then came down to make dinner. How was your day dad?"

"Taylor you're supposed to be taking it easy with this pass. I can appreciate you getting work done for school, but shouldn't you be in bed?"

"Dad they didn't say I would have trouble walking or even running for that matter. Just that I might not be good enough to be back school without another check up."

"Does that mean you're still running in the morning?"

"Yes dad I'm still planning on running in the mornings." Wait would I? Not tomorrow, but the days after for sure.

"With the head injury, it might not be such a bad idea to take a break from it for a bit."

"Maybe, but then that would make it that much harder to pick it back up again."

As much as he was prodding me to give up the running, I had really missed talking to him like this. It felt good to just sit down and chat with him again. I had never asked Tattletale, because I was too afraid of the answer, so I honestly don't know if he had survived the final attack by Scion.

When the pasta was ready I drained it and set out the chicken. The rest of dinner was really nice. I wasn't stressing about school. I had successfully pulled off one job and was optimistic about the others. After dinner, I turned in early. I knew tomorrow would be long, so I wanted to get my rest when I could.

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Sunday morning I got up and set out on my morning jog. I figured it would be that much harder if I didn't get up and do it. I had ample time to get my affairs in order before this afternoon. Plus it allowed me to stash my suit and a few of my weapons where by, I wouldn't need to come home to get them. I set my path to take me to where I would be fighting Lung tonight. I had a baton, pepper spray, and a knife with me. I left them stashed in an alley six blocks west. It would let me come in, get changed, and mobilize without risking being seen by either the ABB thugs or any other capes in the area. Finished with that, I set off for home again. I would need to go shopping, get my nails and hair done, and be mentally prepared for what was about to come.

I checked Feng's phone before I was a mile from home. There was a text message already waiting for me. '250 1st Ave, Boston MA. Suite 1117. 3pm Sharp!' I searched the address on the phone's map app.

Old Colony Line north to South Station. Take the Yellow 93 buss towards Sullivan via Navy Yard. Hop off at Fifth Street and I'm there.

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The address lead me to an austere brick and glass office building. I had on oversized sunglasses, a scarf covering my lower face, and was wearing a heavy jacket that completely hid my figure. All that and I didn't look out of place at all. It was cold and everyone I had come across was bundled up much like I was.

Entering the building I headed straight for the elevator. I wasn't about to exhaust myself on the steps. Not if the suite was on the 11th floor. I was worried about being trapped in the elevator, but I doubted he would try to kill me before we met. Still a possibility I needed to prepare for.

There weren't many bugs out and about in April in Boston. The ones under my coat I had to bring in from home. A few hundred black widows were working just under my coat. I wasn't planning on fighting. They were there for defense. I had brought them with me to fix up my new dress, weaving silk directly into it, following the weave of the dress to add an interwover layer of defense. Working on my sleeveless dress and my full body stocking underneath it all, they were enough that I could spare a few to secure the cables that my roaches had identified as being rigged to release. I held off on doing anything to the cameras watching me. It might be considered a threat if I clipped those wires now. There would be countless other traps waiting for me on the 11th floor that would be more likely to go off.

I hadn't actually managed to secure any of the cables before the car started, and I was barely finished with one by the time I reached the 11th floor. I left a few of my bugs to finish the one, just in case he tried to off me on the elevator on the way out. Better to have it and not need, than need it and not have it. For that matter I should work on cleaning the stairs of traps too. My range was such that I could still reach the ground floor, and so I set local bugs addressing my alternate exit.

I emerged on the 11th floor to an upscale hallway and wandered down till I found a directory, noted my path and set out for 1117. It was a simple door without a nameplate.

I pushed the door open and headed in. Emerging from the hall, I first noticed that the reception was pristine. The marble floors had no grout lines and even the veins interlinked to the point it looked like a continuous slab. The wood walls were much the same. Even the baseboard and crown moulding matched one another to the point where it could all have been cut from the same tree. My experience with the man had only ever been in my territory, and I had never seen his facilities before. To say that I was impressed was an understatement.

"Harbinger?" The woman behind the desk asked. She too was pristine, wearing a yellow formal dress with gold trim and a gorgeous mask to match. Her hair was as immaculately straight as my own was today. I had made sure the stylist had an understanding of my need to have every hair in the right place.

"Indeed. Thank you for having me on such short notice Citrine. I apologize for any inconvenience I might have caused you, Accord, or the other Ambassadors."

"Accord will appreciate your formalities. Have a seat. He will be with you shortly." She looked rather nervous. Oh right she never gave me her name. Well, she never gave me her phone number, but I still had that too. Also I was still dressed like the unibomber. I needed to fix that.

"Do you have a restroom, I would like to compose myself before I head in."

She smiled at this and indicated the hall to my left. I took the opportunity to scan the area with my bugs. Three stories for his office space alone. There was a lot of activity going on. I could detect at least seven individuals going about their separate tasks in the offices around me.

I found the bathroom easily enough. It helped to have a few bugs already scouting for me. I walked in to change and noticed the overlapping fields of view the cameras in the bathroom had. There really was no place in here where they couldn't see my face. Thats not to say the cameras were obvious. I had needed to do two full sweeps with my bugs to pick them all up. I probably missed a few, but I figured it was safe to assume there was no place they couldn't see me.

I covered my head entirely under my coat as I donned the full face mask I had made last night. It was a female face all in white, soft eyeshadow, and the lips in a dark purple. The eyes were done up to have a slight Asian look to them. To add a bit more of an edge I stitched over the lips to bind them shut. A harbinger with her lips sewn shut. Let them figure out a power from that.

The black dress I had on under the coat was nothing like I would normally wear. I had gotten it two sizes too big and stuffed it with silicon padding to fit. I was checking myself in the mirror and liked the look of it. It was reminiscent of a kimono, in that it went all the way up to my neck, but left the arms exposed. It had zippers starting at the sides of the neck and tracking a voluptuous figure line down my normally skinny frame. It gave the illusion of a figure while being helped along with lots of silicon stuffing. It should make me look more like a woman and less like a girl. It would also distort my figure enough to ensure that if they saw me out of costume and without this dress, they wouldn't even guess based on my body type. On top of that I had my hair straightened and left to flow back and behind me. My normally wavy hair would come back once I washed it again, but for now I was a completely different person. I was even wearing a full body stocking just to hide my skin tone. They shouldn't be able to get anything on my identity, and hopefully the Asian motif would act as a red herring.

Secure enough in my new look, I returned and took a seat on the bench she had indicated. It too was immaculate with not a stitch or a seam out of place. It spoke of Accord's neurosis, something I would have to be very careful around. I was already putting myself at odds with him by insisting on the meeting. I would have to be very careful with what I said from here on out. I had my bugs with me, but they were staying far out of sight for the time being. They were currently scouting the insides of the walls in the next room disabling any and all traps they could find. I might have need of a demonstration later and it wouldn't hurt to have a few contingencies in place, like the black widows I still had tucked on the inside of my thighs, above my skirt line, and on the back of my head well below my hair.

A light went off at her desk and she rose. "Accord will see you now. A word of advice, he is already upset with you. Don't do anything to upset him further."

I nodded and walked in. If I thought his reception was impressive, his office was awesome. As in the original definition of the word. China parquet wood flooring with real wood. Not a veneer pattern, but actual wood. I remembered touring Monticello in 5th grade. This beat that by a mile. The complexity of the patterns were astounding.

"Good afternoon Harbinger."

My musings would have to wait. I had a very capable sociopath standing before me and a lot of my plans hinged on this meeting.

"Good afternoon Accord. Thank you for seeing me on such short notice."

"I do not usually make such accommodations. You said you had to discuss an S class threat that is a danger to my life. Discuss."

Well so much for formalities. I guess he was skipping those until he heard about the death threat. Not a good sign. I shouldn't have rushed into this meeting, but I wasn't about to stand by when I could be doing something to save everyone.

"I have come to discuss several items today. If you would like to discuss the threat to your life first, I can oblige," I paused waiting on him. He gave a nod, but nothing more. "You recently came in contact with a team of Parahumans by the name of the Travelers. One of their members has been touched by the Simurgh and intends to kill you."

"And this is the S class threat?"

"The two are now unrelated. The threat to your life is from a cape by the name of Perdition or Cody. You recently sent him to the Yang ban for 'rehabilitation.' When you next meet, he will kill you."

He twitched at that. I hadn't spent long enough around him to get a great sense for his ticks, but the twitch was there.

"Then I will be sure not to meet him."

"You should know with the Simurgh at play, the only way to be sure not to be his victim is if he is dead."

"You seem rather certain of this. You know this how."

No way am I telling him that secret. Not yet anyway. I needed to know he wasn't going to try and impale me from above before I would tell that secret.

"First you will need to commit to executing this agent of chaos. Preferably before he is assimilated into the Yang ban. They are a force of order, but even they cannot counter the Simurgh. It will also be much harder to dispose of him once he has their full range of powers."

I waited. I could stand here all day till he committed. Waiting let me take care of a few other things. I had my spiders positioning themselves about the facility, climbing onto the rest of the ambassadors. If shit went sideways, I'd be ready. I was also using them to scout the room and close off the traps he had set for me. He hadn't had me take a seat yet, which was a bad sign. I was currently standing under a ceiling tile that could spit spikes. On the plus side my bugs, were chewing through the trigger mechanisms. Bugs were also digging through the walls looking for any other projectiles and attacking the buttons in and under his desk. I had also found a gas hose. That wouldn't be safe to cut, so I had a spider on my side of the wall covering the head where it emerged into the room.

"You twist my arm, saying you are trying to preserve my life. Very well. I can commit to correcting this problem. Have a seat and we will discuss this S class threat."

I moved to take a seat as he did.

"Thank you Accord. I actually have several items to discuss with you. One is to relay a message to certain individuals. This is in regards to the S class threat. The second, is that I would like to acquire a certain individual for my organization. The third is to purchase a plan from you."

He leaned back. The third one was really just to stroke his ego.

"My plans do not come cheap."

Bingo. A lie. No one ever purchased his plans. He had to force them on others who still dismissed them after he left.

"I would not expect them to be. Were they cheap, I would have doubts about their effectiveness."

He didn't smile at that, but he did draw himself up bit straighter. It was marginal, but I would take it.

"And what would you have me plan? A heist? An assassination? A city takeover?"

"Disaster relief. I will need to plan for a viable source of supplies. Routes into and out of the city will be hazardous. I have water access, but will be expecting any existing structures to suffer cataclysmic damage."

"You have a city in mind?" I could see him getting anxious, or maybe that was just how he looked when his powers were kicking in.

I paused. Let him run through his powers for a bit. It might leave him less stressed. Or it might be that he was worried it was Boston that would be attacked. It was a city with water access.

"I'm sorry, but I have already said too much. I will need a general plan that can allow for adaptations. Assume capes will target supplies with capes defending the supplies. Assume any stockpiles in a city are void. All supplies must be from external sources. But back to my first item, I wish for you to convey a message to Countessa, Doctor Mother, and the Numbers Man."

"I'm afraid I am unfamiliar with who you are referring to," he said leaning back in his chair and steepling his fingers.

"Cauldron. You purchase your assistants abilities from them. You have a means of communicating with them. I'd like you to pass on a message."

I paused again. He had gone still. Not still as in poised to strike, but still so as not to give away anything from his body language. I waited for a bit longer.

"Do you have a pen and paper. I would like to be sure my message is exact and would not ask you to act as a scribe."

"Only as a messenger boy."

"You may prefer the term harbinger."

"Is that not your name?"

"I informed your secretary that the name 'Harbinger' was not my name while out in costume. It is simply a code name to use for meetings like this where even my cape name must be kept confidential."

"You don't trust me?"

"I do not trust that your methods of communication are entirely secure. This is not a slight against you, but there is a reason I am not having this message recorded digitally. You might be surprised by what tinkers and thinkers are capable of. Some powers seem far too much like cheating."

"Indeed," he paused again. Then he passed me a pad of paper and an exquisite fountain pen.

I took extra care to write neatly. The paper had no lines which made it a bit more difficult. I had been going over this message in my mind since I got back. I still wasn't convinced it was the best it could be, but time was up and I had to put pen to paper.

'15 years. Help me clear the path to Zion. Will discuss only at your source.'

Not very poetic, but its not like I'm writing a prophecy. I'm just trying to peak their interest and set my terms. Besides it wouldn't be safe to discuss anything more than that. I couldn't be sure She couldn't see other worlds. Of the only two blind spots I knew of, one was in their base. Only there, would it be safe to talk freely.

I passed the pad back after wiping the tip and the rest of the pen.

He read it once over. Then again.

"And they will understand this?"

"They will, and I have another number for both of you to reach me at," I had purchased a few prepaid phones when I was doing my shopping for my dress and shoes. I wrote one of the numbers down for them as well.

"See to it that they receive this in a timely manner. Chaos will ensue until proper action is taken. This brings me to my final item of discussion."

"Yes and who is it that you want in your organization? Me?"

"We could do great things together Accord, but the time is not right. No, I would like to acquire Blasto. I understand he is a rival of yours. I'd like to remove this thorn in your side."

"And what is your interest in Blasto?"

"He is an agent of chaos. A wet tinkerer is something rather unsightly. I am an agent of order. Under my stewardship, I would be able to redirect his tasks to something more amenable."

"Yes, unsightly is an apt word. I have no love for the man or his creations. They are abhorrent. They disrupt the natural order of things. They go against nature itself. They are abominations."

I could hear the sneer before I saw it on his mask. I wasn't sure if it was his neurosis or something personal against Blasto. His attitude might have changed over time, or it might not have. Either way, he ended up acquiring Blasto shortly before coming to Brockton Bay. It was something I was worried about. I was taking away something he was probably planning on keeping. Not that Blasto was his yet, but in two to three months, Blasto would be working for Accord, if I didn't interfere.

"But why ask me of this. You already know he is an adversary of mine. It is not in my power to give him to you."

"No, what I want from you is peace. Hold off on any plans you have against him. I will not need him to relocate for another few months. That being said, he has work to do for me. See to it that he survives without incident until such a time."

"This is a possibility."

"But?"

"You have asked me to do a large number of things for you. Now we must talk price."

"For remaining peaceful with Blasto until such a time as he is to be moved, you may claim half his territories when it is vacated. The other half will remain under my control. For the delivery of the message to Cauldron. Consider that its own reward. It may well save your life even. Or use it as a bargaining chip when requesting new vials for minions. That leaves the price for the plans."

"I'm afraid I will require all of his territory in exchange for remaining neutral. I cannot do business with his creations roaming my streets. The price you offer is much too low. Conveying a message is also very expensive. I will have to ask for $200,000. As for my plans. Well they are the most expensive of all. $500,000. for the plans and not a penny less."

Well fuck that. I offer him a fair deal and he throws it in my face. This negotiation was falling apart before I could get it off the ground.

"Deal. But that still leaves one item unpaid for."

"Oh? And what might that be?" he asked.

"Your life."

"You threaten me in my own office?" He had quirked an eyebrow as if to say I'd like to see you try. I also noticed his foot moving over a tile I hadn't noticed before. Subtle.

"I gave you the information to save your life. What price should I name for that. One million? Two million? Ten million?"

"That information was payment for an impromptu meeting. It was payment for insulting me. Furthermore it is customary to give a gift as a tribute when meeting with your betters. You have much to learn when dealing with individuals such as myself. It makes me wonder if you should really be trying to play with the big boys."

Mother fucker. This part was so not going as planned. Hell, he could take all the territory, but the money I wasn't ready to part with. I would need all of that and more to get my plans into operation. This arrogant prick was trying to rob me when I just saved his stupid life twice over!

"Ill give you the rest of Blasto's territory to cover the cost of sending a message to Cauldron. As for the Disaster Relief plan, I may delay that request indefinitely. Do we have a deal?"

He didn't look happy at that. Well he didn't look anything, as he had gone still again.

"I think I will have to delay the delivery of your message indefinitely. At least until you have learned better manners. Now I am a busy man and I have many matters to attend to. Now if you're done wasting my-"

I stood quickly pulling the cord wrapped around his throat tight. His foot massed the tile while he grabbed at his desk and hit several buttons beneath. I had scoured the room in the time of our conversation and disabled every trap I could find and every trigger under his desk, save for the foot device. His computer screen cut off when I had two linked caterpillars trip the breaker. The office descended into darkness.

I leapt over his desk and knocked him backwards onto the ground. I pinned him under his chair and began stringing his arms and legs to the legs of it. He hadn't been able to trigger any alerts to the rest of his staff that I could tell, and for that I was thankful. It would be much easier to disable them if they were isolated. Better still to not have to contend with them.

"Youre going to regret this Harbinger," he growled.

"The only reason you're alive is because I still need you. I made a fair offer and you insult me by throwing it in my face and then dismissing me. Get them that message. If you need a better reason to get in contact with them I can start executing your minions. It would be easy, I wouldn't even have to leave the room to do it. One by one they will drop dead, through no fault of their own, simply because in the end, you favored chaos over order. And I thought you were a smart man, but it seems I was mistaken."

"I wont forget this."

"I should hope not. Next time you insult me I'll kill you. Now are you going to pass that message on to Cauldron for me?"

"Fine," he choked out.

"Good, and are you going to cause any trouble for Blasto for the next few months?"

He tried wiggling free, so I pulled the cord, cutting into his neck.

"None of that. Are you going to cause any trouble for Blasto?"

"No!" He wheezed out when I finally let him breath."

"Good. Now that means that there won't be any trouble for Blasto. Not from you, or Spree, or Chain Man, any Heros, or any other out of town cape. Nobody touches Blasto or I execute every last one of you. And when I take over all his territory you will remember why its me expanding to take over the rest of Boston and not you. I'll notify your secretary that you need some assistance on my way out." I lifted him mask enough to gagged him and tied off the noose to the back of the chair. Turning my back to him, I walked out at a steady, but determined pace. Running would tip them off that something was amiss.

"How did your meeting go?" Citrine asked from her desk. The reception area had a few windows that were letting in light. Accord for whatever reason had his blinds closed. Or did I close them with my bugs? Nope, those were automated. They had been closed before I tripped the breaker.

"The loss of power interrupted us. Accord is in a bit of a state. You may want to give him a minute before you head in," I said before grabbing my bags and heading for the stairs.

She paled at that. That fear will either keep her out of the room long enough for me to get out, or send her rushing in to check on him. I left a bug on her shoulder to keep tabs. I also set to cleaning out the webs that were still stopping his countermeasures. I had made an enemy today. One that would have been better served as an ally. Nothing for it now. I needed that message out and I wasn't about to let him rob me blind to do so. I wasn't about to lose to him either. I couldn't let him win.

Hopefully I could make amends and delivering that message from me should get a strong enough reaction from Cauldron to let him know I'm not some kid screwing around. I'm a queen on this chessboard god dammit!

0

0

0

As I rushed down the stairs, I tried to calm myself. Despite the power cutting out, the stairs were still brightly lit. Emergency lighting had kicked on in the fire rated stairwell. I was checking through with my bugs, but the traps seemed to be off. I wasn't sure if the traps would be rigged to a separate power supply or have battery backups like the lighting. Given Accord's power set, I wouldn't be able to try this same trick twice.

I made sure to leave no bugs left behind, nor webbing, once I was clear of those traps I couldn't cut through like the gas hose. I was taking a risk with the spider silk that was left tied to him, but I wouldn't be collecting that until I was clear of the building.

I should have just paid him the 200k, or better yet haggled it down some. Screw the plan for the city. I had only added that to stroke his ego. For all the good that did me. I already had my own plans for that, but having him add his two cents would have helped find any gaps I had missed. For now, I'd just have to make due on my own. I'm not too good at these types of negotiations am I? Last one I was at, I killed everyone on the other side of the table. Ok that wasn't the last one, but I did screw that up royally too. I'd have to work on these things. The next meeting with a villain I had planned needed to go better than this. If I botched this next one I'd be in serious trouble.

I donned my coat and scarf and walked outside through the fire escape stair. The alarm went off as I was leaving the building. Let them deal with the mess.

I scouted out ahead of me looking to see if there was a bus nearby. There wasn't, but being by the naval yard, there were a few taxis. I hailed one and got in. I headed to south station, where I got out, walked to the opposite side of the block, and hopped in another taxi. I had changed my mask for my scarf and sunglasses in the last cab. This one wouldn't know I had even been wearing a mask. Just to be sure though I had it drop me off and I again changed cabs.

"Allston, East. I'll tell you when to stop."

Why couldn't he just have agreed. I had faced so much opposition from villains and heroes in my preparations for Jack. I wasn't about to take no for an answer now that I was up against a god.


	4. Hemolymph 1-4

1.04 Hemolymph

I needed to calm down. I was still livid from the mess I had made with Accord. $700,000. for a message and a stack of papers!

Relax Taylor. Relax.

I had to reach out to my bugs again. I was approaching the area of my next target. I had donned a heavy coat with a hood to cover my dress when I left Accord's. While Brockton Bay might have mild weather in April, Boston was in the 50's. Most of the insects I had available were hiding in buildings to keep warm. That meant that when I found a cluster of them outside, it was an oddity.

I reached towards them and was a bit startled. Maggots covered a corpse. I had no idea what kind of animal it had even started as.

I had the cab stop and I got out. I wandered just off the main street to see the corpse. At the moment it looked a bit green. That should mean I was in the right area.

I started the flies, taking turns weaving in and out of the streets and the interiors of buildings to keep them warm. When I felt one start slowing down, I found them a nice warm spot by a space heater to recoup.

I didn't have to search too long before I found another anomaly. This one was still alive and dangerous. It had caught my attention by killing nearly every bug I sent its way. I cautiously approached the area of the dying insects. I amassed a small swarm and sent half in. They were picked off one by one from a distance. As they closed in, a cluster was snatched out the air. Luckily I still had enough to land on this creature.

I was so shocked by what they were resting on that I hardly remembered to pull them back before they were all devoured. Leaving them there actually was a good thing. When the creature couldn't hit them without striking it's body, it released a purple cloud that killed them en mass.

Ok so this thing could spit the needles that covered its face, chomp a bunch all at once with its over wide jaws, and emit a cloud of death at close range. The thing looked like one of those killer plants in Super Mario. This one though was mottled brown and didn't attack on a predictable timer.

Not worth a fight, I decided to move on and keep searching. This time I started sending bugs deeper into the buildings. The live creature told me I was in the right area. It was an active defense and why would you need to defend if you weren't anywhere near.

I spent the next twenty minutes passing by stranger and stranger amalgamations of plant and animal biology. I had tried reaching out to their minds, but was denied each time. I did find one mind that I could touch. This one had twelve legs. Six appendages sprung from the body and spit in two before ending in needle like legs. I could feel its anatomy which showed me it was slowly starving, but more importantly it was sterile. It was vaguely insectile though my commands over it were being fought by other baser emotions. It wasn't until my other bugs started to fight against my control too that I stopped to feel.

My bugs were all reacting strongly to a scent in the area. It told them to flee. I spread them out along the edges of the scent to get an idea of how large an area it was. Despite their urges to flee I still maintained control. I did have to focus on them more, giving an uninterrupted line of commands to keep what was affecting them from taking over. I could feel a perimeter had been set in a rough circle around a corner building. It was mostly brick and seemed to be partially overgrown with ivy. Given who lived here I had my doubts that this was any ordinary ivy. I would steer clear of that. Unless that's what he wanted me to think? Was he the type of cape to hide behind something so obviously a trap so as to protect himself from the smart capes? Well that would be trumped by the dumb ones, or the doubly smart ones. It's like in The Princess Bride. Which cup is poisoned? The one on the left or the one on the right? Ok, bad example, both cups were poisoned.

How to approach then? I hadn't had a number to call like I had had Citrine's from when she came to work for me with the rest of the Ambassadors. Should I just knock? Finding and disabling traps would be a lot harder here than with Accord. My bugs wouldn't be able to tell if a plant was deadly without being eaten first.

I still hadn't mastered speaking or hearing through my bugs. Maybe I should just come back after I had improved some. No I was here to do just that.

I started gathering a larger swarm. As I did, I sent various bugs into the building. First I noticed that once inside, their resistance to being there had faded, but instead I felt a warmth or strong attraction to something through them. Odd. I wanted to find Blasto, make sure he was at least here. Scouting the building showed me a 3 story building. The ground floor was living space, the kitchen, and what would be the den and family room. Those were occupied with a few cages with some creations inside. Guards I suspected. The second floor had more of the same. The third floor had mostly storage. Still no bedroom, nor did I find a lab, or even him. I started searching down. Sure enough, I found the lab and with it Blasto. He was hunched over a desk mumbling. I couldn't tell if my bug hearing was bad or if he really was just mumbling. Also in the lab were three other creatures. They seemed roughly humanoid, but far too hairy. Maybe a cross between monkey and ape. Could he have reverse engineered the missing link? No, I recognized their description from the reports of Defiants final fight with Damsel of Distress.

Well he was here. Now how to get his attention without starting a fight. I created two swarms sending one to the lab and one to the front door. Sure enough the ivy moved to ensnare my bugs. The problem with that was that the ivy was designed to cling to appendages. Human appendages. When the ivy closed around the mass of my bug swarm the vines simply passed through them. My bugs didn't even need to fight to get out of the way, the ivy took the path of least resistance and slid past them. The second swarm of bugs was moving deeper into his workshop to Blasto himself. I gathered clusters on the wall and started forming words. He was too preoccupied so I landed a few bugs near him to get his attention. He still ignored them.

Frustrating. I sent several flies to buzz in front of him. He tried waving them away, but was still trying to get back to work. Ok, thats it. I sent the whole of the swarm I had writing on the wall onto his desk.

This got his attention. He fell out of his chair and started scrambling back. I immediately pulled back my swarm to the wall and rearranged them into my message. He was still scrambling, but I could tell he was paying attention to what I was writing. Midway through he stood and walked from the room. I tracked his movements and he made his way to the stairs and the front door. He opened the door and came face to face with my swarm. I had tried composing them in a humanoid form which might have been the reason for his face blanching.

"You are here to speak of Accord's surrender?" he asked with a slight quaver in his voice.

My swarm raised a hand to point in my direction and looked to me for further emphasis. When Blasto looked my way, I had my swarm disperse. I was walking towards him in my black dress and full face mask. I covered the distance at an easy pace. Rushing could be seen as a threat. Taking my time had him waiting on me and not the other way around. It also let me begin dealing with the minions that had begun moving into the area. He had changed the smell of the area. Now my bugs were feeling agitated. This was the smell of danger, of a threat. Should I mess this up, he might switch them to an aggressive or defensive state. Both would paint me as a target. Both would also leave me fighting for control of my bugs and fighting his many minions.

I stopped my walk ten feet from him.

"I am here to negotiate a truce," I lied. I had actually started a war. It would be a cold war at first, but eventually it would heat up. I would need to keep it cold for as long as possible. After that Accord wouldn't be an issue.

"Funny I don't recognize you as one of his Ambassadors."

"I'm a third party. Accord knows me by Harbinger."

"And what am I to know you as?"

"For the time you may call me Harbinger."

"So Harbinger what terms is Accord offering me?"

"Two months of peace whereby at the end of this time, you will be provided a new lab and biological samples you would otherwise be unable to attain on your own."

"Hardly an appealing offer. I have everything I need here."

"Not everything. The offer is better than you might imagine, but as I said I was here to negotiate. If this is insufficient, what will you require?"

"This is a trap. Another game by Accord to get to my work."

He had about 12 creatures I could identify moving in my direction. My bugs were having a difficult time with them. Most seemed to prey upon insects or at least be able to handle them well enough. I tried adjusting tactics and using the black widows to bite them. That had the worst effect of all. Instead of dying like most animals, these hybrids seemed not only immune to the venom, but the biting acted to further aggravate them. They were still a distance away, but there were moving rapidly.

"Freedom. I can grant you freedom. I can see the chains that bind you Blasto," I had the twelve legged creature that had been nearest, scurry towards me. It climbed my leg and came to rest on my shoulder. "He is sterile. As are the rest of your creations. This new facility will be well beyond the reach of the PRT and their rules and regulations. You will have ultimate control over your domain. It will be a garden paradise. Imagine what you can create without the fear of being labeled as an S class threat."

"You? You grant me these things then? Not Accord?"

Shit I did say 'I' didn't I. Well there was nothing for it now.

"I can grant you these things. I have offered terms for peace with Accord. His terms were for your territory."

"So you bargain with my territory before even consulting me?!"

"No I made a fair offer. He refused and demanded your life. I am saving your life. To do so though, requires you to relocate."

"And what good will relocating do for me? What good will a new lab be in a garden paradise. I may be a botanist, but I need tech to work my magic. How am I to get this if I'm far enough from civilization that the PRT simply don't care what I do? I would have to be on my own island for them not to care. And an island doesn't have much in the way of lab equipment."

"I can assure you the facilities will be state of the art. You will be fully stocked and want for nothing."

"So what is it that you get out of this hrm? It's me you want isn't it. You want my creations just like everyone else!"

Ok to hell with this.

I called in my swarm. I had every bug for a block descend on us even pulling them off harassment detail. They swarmed around me and Blasto. He cowered on the ground with his hands above his head. My bugs had already found the various vials with the pheromones he was planning to use on me. In the time we had spoken I had stripped them from him. His first instinct was to duck and cover, but once on the ground, he began searching for the missing vials.

"Yes. I want your creations Blasto. But I am willing to pay for them and pay handsomely," my swarm still obscured the two of us from each other. I closed the distance between us unnoticed. Last chance at making this work I thought. I finished what my bugs were unable to do.

I pulled them all back just as I turned around, now standing in the same spot I was when they first descended. He looked up and saw what I had left him.

Stacks and stacks of money were laid out before him. All the money I had taken from the ABB minus what I had already spent and a few grand for odds and ends later. I had piled the smallest bills at the bottom with the stacks of hundreds on top. I never could read well with my bugs. That was something I needed my own eyes for.

"For now I am asking that you lay low. Keep out of trouble for a few months. I'll be paying you more that you would ever be able to steal on your own. Yes, I do want your creations, but more accurately, I want you to create for me. The money before you is for a specific creation. I have limits. This creation should remove some of these. I encountered a cape once who could alter the biologies of my bugs. The most useful was a dragonfly that could relay my abilities. I could chain them out to reach greater and greater distances. I would need a bug like this."

I gathered my swarm back to me and had his 12 legged creation join them. "It's evident that your creations work well with my abilities. The relay bugs would be a start. Deliver them and I will ask for others. Fire ants. Lightning bugs. Fishing spiders. Carpenter ants. I will of course be open to any and all suggestions, and I will be paying you well enough it should no longer necessitate you having to involve yourself in any further crimes."

"So you want me to make you amplification bugs. You are paying me in cash. And after I deliver what then? You push your range to the ends of the earth and you won't need me much anymore. With that kind of ability you could destroy the earth. You could have swarms black out the sun, or chew through a reactor core, or power lines cutting off power to Nations. You could have your insects devour the World's crops, spread diseases faster than any that have plagued our earth before! You could become a new Endbringer!"

Wow. Just. Wow. That was a really scary thought. I could do all of that too. Natural swarms devoured to feed. I had had my bugs devour only to chew through things. And spreading diseases? I could send a group of mosquitoes to feed on a West Nile victim, and then spread them like wildfire across the earth, breeding and feeding. I could do all that without Blasto's help too. I did like his creativity though. I had never thought of how to turn my powers to mass destruction. Probably not a good thing those were his first thoughts. Might say something about his own abilities. That or maybe he was echoing the fears the PRT had for him and his creations.

"I can do all of those things now. But you are right. With the relay bugs I would grow from a threat to a city to a threat to the world. I however have no interest in destroying the world. Nor am I aiming for world domination. I intend to save it. You speak of the Endbringers. Eventually they will win. We are fighting a losing battle against them. Each fight we lose more and more capes. We become weaker and weaker while they never die. We may need to tip the scales in our favor. This is where you come in. Start with the relay bugs and I will pay you for any other insect creations you can come up with."

"You really think bugs can fight an Endbringer? You would be taking on a Goliath."

"Do you remember how that story ended?" That gave him pause.

"You want to prove you are trying to save the world fine. I'll make your relay bugs. If you can kill an Endbringer with them."

"Then you will work for me. Same terms as before. Your own lab with freedom from PRT regulations. On top of that I will fully fund your operations for a further 5 years. Anything you need ask and if it's attainable I will find it for you. You will however be expected to produce self replicating insects for me to use during that time. I would prefer you spend your time experimenting with new creations rather than trying to attain numbers. I can handle the reproduction rates should they be viable. Furthermore I will need a few more creations between now and when I kill an Endbringer. Again, I will pay in cash, in full, upfront as a sign of trust." I wouldn't be able to not trust him with the mission I had for him. I had worried when he was being obstinate. I almost lost my temper again. I just hope my swarm hadn't put him off too much. This was one bridge I couldn't afford to burn.

I thought back to what he had said though. I could become an Endbringer. A scary thought. One I'd have to remember when I was making plans. If I had that kind of power, it may not matter if I even used it. Just being that powerful, I would be a threat to the world and that would make me a target. And if I ended up too far on the villainous side, that alone might be reason to have a kill order on me. Well maybe not without provocation, but I knew I would be doing a lot of that soon.

"I will consider this. In the meantime, I can set to making these bugs for you. Come inside. I will need to get an understanding of your abilities before I can make a bug to relay your commands."

I obliged and helped by having my bugs ferry the money in before he could grab any of it. He simply stared at them as they worked. He actually stopped in the doorway and leaned over to observe my swarm at work. I had spiders tying lines from the stacks to teams of roaches. They had arranged themselves in columns of four with rows of eight. The teams worked like horse drawn carriages. It wasn't until the last of them had been rigged up and taken off that he straightened. He turned to look at me with a face full of awe.

"Your control is amazing. They are a truly terrifying sight to behold. They act so human. The organization skills alone are beyond what most individuals can even comprehend. God help your enemies."

My enemies are gods I thought. Even still, the flattery was appreciated. Hell I was just glad I hadn't killed him. That would have been catastrophic. And even better, he had accepted. Well not entirely, but he as good as said he would work for me. All I had to do was kill an Endbringer. I could do that. He would also make my relay bugs! Or he just wanted to lure me into his lair to kill me. When going over the files on him and the tinkers from the Toybox the S9 raided I didn't have much information on Blasto's personality. He was listed as never having operated under another known cape, nor had ever employed any capes himself. He was a plant tinker 6 with various subs as a master 5, blaster 2, shifter 2, and brute 2. He also capped out at Second degree murder. If he killed me here and now it might shift to first degree murder. But then again if he killed me here, there wouldn't be anyone to know about it.

We proceeded deeper into the facility. I came across many more of his creations. Each weirder than the next. None others though, were even remotely insectile. The fact that I could control his one bug things was promising as it meant I might get him to build me a new Atlas. Preferably one that could eat, though. And maybe something a bit more compact that could act just like a pair of wings. First I would need the relay bugs. After that I could work on flying, or maybe the lightning bugs, or fire ants. Actually I could really use something like both of those soon. I would need to start writing these down for later. Or maybe tell him now to get him started on them. I don't know how long it will take him to get the job done. I would need to be back in Brockton Bay by 10:30 pm. That should give me time to get changed and be in position for Lung. It was only 4:30 now. I would need to leave here by 7 to make the train back to the Bay in time. Some tinkerers could hash out a weapon in a matter of minutes. Against Bonesaw, she had performed plastic surgery on half a dozen people in as many minutes or less. I wasn't actually sure how quickly she had done so. I had been a little out of sorts by that stage of the game.

Lost in thought again, I hadn't realized we had arrived at our destination. We were back at the desk I had first surprised him at. I had begun to bring the money onto the table. The teams of roaches weren't strong enough to drag the bills straight up so I had to set up rigging with the spider silk. I hadn't even been paying attention to where I was walking let alone what I was doing and here I had a bug crane with pulleys and a cluster of bugs hoisting the bills up. I forgot how creepy my passenger could be. Blasto was again astounded by the ingenuity of the insects. He again sat and watched them while they worked. He looked like a kid in a candy shop, eyes wide, mouth slightly ajar. I wouldn't have been surprised if he was even drooling a little.

I didn't want to ruin his fun just yet. I would want him happy and maybe seeing my bugs work together might give him a few more ideas on what more he could create for me. Then again, I did have a schedule to keep.

"And how would you like me to demonstrate my power? Will you need tech to determine what wavelengths my powers work on?"

"Fascinating." He hadn't even turned to look at me.

Guess I'd just have to wait till they were done. It took another twenty minutes to get all the stacks up on the table. When they were finished, he was left with a big smile on his face and a far away look in his eyes. Both I was happy with. If he was focusing his tinker powers on the bugs, then I was in. First though I would desperately need those relay bugs.

He returned to his desk and furiously started writing out long complicated sequences. I couldn't tell if he was writing in English or his own coding system like I had first used. Crap I should probably find that book and destroy it. Not that I wouldn't find some useful ideas, more that it was further evidence of who I was and what I might be planning. The only safe place for that was in my mind. To date, there hadn't been a true psychic. Not a confirmed one at least. Cherish and Gallant were close, but they could only pick up emotions. Other capes like Tattletale could cold-read, but that wasn't even close to psychic powers.

Blasto was still scribbling when I tried to get his attention again. I had a single bug scurry across the page. He ignored it. Well this was oddly familiar. I didn't want to startle him again, or interrupt him for that matter, but I needed him to start on the relay bugs. I moved one bug at a time onto the paper spelling out relays. It still took him until he moved to flip the page before he realized I was trying to tell him something. Man is this what tinkers are like?

"Yes yes the relays I had another brilliant idea I had to explore first."

"Ill need you to refocus. First the relays, then whatever else you had just been brainstorming. What will you require of me?"

"I will need to run tests to determine where in the brain the bugs might receive your commands. There should be something like a receptor connected to the antenna that they would use to sense the world. Your commands might override this area. I would need to examine this, but I may be able to allow the receptors to reverse and instead project. It might be tricky, I would need to,"

"Just tell me what I can do here and now to expedite the process."

"Yes well um, here sit here. And… give me a minute."

I sat on the stool indicated. He came back with a bunch of satellite dish like contraptions and antenna that he pointed at me. He then set more up on his desk pointed at a group of the insects.

"I will have you issue a series of commands. You don't seem interested in hearing the how, so I won't bore you with the details, but I will try and determine what will be needed for this experiment."

It was late that we finished. I was in the red zone for getting back in time. Blasto had done his tests and more tests and more tests after that muttering the whole time. He told me he would be creating several strands of the relay bugs as he wasn't sure what would and wouldn't work. So I left with no new bugs, but the promise to check back in a few days to see the end results and confirm which would amplify my commands. I had also dropped nearly every dollar I had stolen from the ABB. I had a few grand stashed away for a few emergency purchases, but it wouldn't be enough to keep Blasto happy. Then again just working uninterrupted seemed to make him very happy. No, I needed to pay him more in the future. Plus I would need to get enough to get a lab up and ready for him. I knew of a few ways to bring in more money, but I was beginning to realize I might need help with the negotiations. Well that cape I would be meeting tonight, and if things went as planned, we would be working together for a very long time.

Well, provided I could get back in time. I called a cab to meet me and my location. I made sure to check his face and search the car before getting in. No sense in falling prey to a trap by Accord. He would have had time to get himself untangled and likely had eyes near Blasto. One of the reasons I wanted the relay bugs. It would let me get in touch with him from Brockton Bay if I needed to and there was no way except to be me or Blasto, or to be in the room with him, to know what was being transmitted. I'd also be able to set up to watch Accord for when he made contact with Cauldron. Hell I could spy on the whole East Coast. Blasto was right. I get enough relay bugs and I'd be an Endbringer. Well that was kinda the goal anyway. Make myself powerful enough to kill them and Scion. Today was a good start, but if things didn't go right tonight, then I could kiss any progress I made goodbye. I had promised Blasto a lot more than I was able to deliver right now. I would need a few million to get his lab started, and a few more before I could get my own operations up and running.

I started going over my plans to get that kind of money. The easiest was to rob the ABB again. That I could do in my sleep. Well almost. I could do it without putting much thought into it, that's for sure. If I had my relay bugs by than, I could do it from Boston if I needed to. The other two ways I would need help. I would need a team. I would need the Undersiders.


	5. Hemolymph 1-5

1.05 Hemolymph

I was late.

I was very late.

That was bad.

Timing here was going to be everything and I hadn't anticipated the delays I experienced. It was 11:30 and I was only just getting off the train, an hour later for missing the earlier train. It would be another half hour before I would be able to get down to where the fight with Lung would take place, and I had no way of getting there by bus this late at night. I grabbed a cab straight out of the train station and directed him to where I had stashed by costume. Sadly it was only the midpoint between the train station and where I desperately needed to be tonight. I couldn't stop and change and hop back in the cab as that would be a little too obvious. I took the lesser of the two evils and had the cab wait while I grabbed the ziplocks with my weapons, costume, and mask that had been stuffed in a airduct of an abandoned building. I had to cut through the webbing I had used to secure the stash from earlier, which took more time. I also had to stuff it all in my backpack so the cab driver wouldn't freak out at me bringing weapons into the cab.

Back on the road, but down 10 minutes from the stop, I was very worried. The Undersiders could survive Lung on their own, but this was my best bet at making inroads. I sorted through my bag while I nervously waited in the back seat. I had one baton, a can of pepper spray, a fire blanket, part of the first aid kit I had pieced out for tonight, a can of cooking fuel, and my new/old knife. I had brought with me to Boston some of the other gear I had picked up at the army surplus store. I had my gun, compas, phone, lighter, another can of pepper spray, my epipens, a pouch of chalk dust, and whistle. I still had my black widows and brown recluse spiders. I would however need a different kind of bug for later tonight. That was going to be far more difficult. I didn't remember ever coming across them in Brockton Bay before, but then again I had never looked for them either. They were less than useless on most occasions. Tonight though they could make or break me.

I should have shortened my time with Blasto or gone earlier. No, I needed the time to get ready for Accord. Maybe I should have just skipped Accord? I wanted him to give Blasto space and pass along the message to Cauldron. Now he was likely to come after Blasto just out of spite. He already had reason to hate him. Just listening to him rant I could tell he wanted him dead. No thats not right, he had planned to own Blasto the first time around. Had he been pissed I was trying to take Blasto? Well if I had to fight him I would. I needed Blaso more than contact with Cauldron. Well not exactly, but I did have other means of getting in contact with Cauldron than through Accord. I wonder how long he had been tied up after I left. I felt kinda bad for Citrine. I hadn't really meant for her to get in trouble for my stunt.

Focus Taylor. I wasn't finding the bugs I was looking for, much to my dismay. I might be able to substitute. He couldn't be that smart could he? Only one way to find out. So I substitute and hope he doesn't notice. Could work. I'd just have to choose my words carefully.

We were closing in on the docks. I considered having him head in the two blocks to where the fight would be, but thought better of it. I would need to have a minute or two to myself to get my costume on. We stopped on the main street and I paid him a 50. I didn't want to wait for him to make change so I bolted from the cab bag in hand and headed down the side street.

I could hear howling before I even got to the alley. No! They had already started. I didn't have time to get my full gear on. I was still wearing the black dress with the jacket. I could throw on my mask and hit them from a distance. That would have to do. But of the group, Bitch was the only close range combatant. Well more like her dogs were. They might not be able to take on all of them. Last time there had been roughly twentyfive guys and girls plus Lung.

I sent my bugs in ahead of time. I couldn't get a good read on the situation. I tried tagging individuals, but the only ones I was managing to get bugs on were lying on the ground. One was a girl with long hair and she was bleeding from a wound in her side. Shit. Shit!

I donned my mask, grabbed my batton and knife, clipped the pepper spray to my side and charged in with the rest of my swarm. My bag was left behind in the street and I devoted a team of roaches and spiders to move it out of the way and collect anything that fell out.

I rounded the corner. I couldn't see or hear any of the Undersiders. Not Tattletale, not Grue, nor even the dogs. I couldn't see or hear anything. The alley was covered in darkness and I had just walked right into it. I shut my eyes and reached out with my bugs instead. Ever just know where a part of your body was in relation to the rest of it? You do it every day. It's called proprioception. Well my bugs were like my body. I could tell where each and every one of them was without even trying. It let me send a wall out to bump into bodies. It's not like an echolocation. It's like sending a hundred hands into a room before you. Right now I had just sent several thousand hands and feelers flying into the area. I had been gathering what bugs could keep up with the cab as we made our way down through the city. I sent the smallest in to sit on joints and near the ends of bats, pipes, and a katana? Ok that was harder to keep a bug on. I'd have to pay a bit more attention to that guy. It wouldn't do to get blind sided by him. I wasn't in full gear and that blade would cut through my dress like tissue paper.

I tried sorting through the mass of bodies to identify friend from foe. Easier said than done. In darkness they seemed to have just as much trouble telling one another apart too. I reached out further. Oh right. I could feel the four of them just out of the fight up on the roof above the Alley and out of the darkness. Grue was pushing his darkness into the alley. Regent was fixated on Lung and his fight with the dogs. They were clear of the rest of the gang members. Grue was trying to control his darkness to trap Lung at odds with his attacks. Pair that with Regent literally twisting his arm when he threw punches and Lung wasn't making much headway against the trio of Brutus, Judas, and Angelica. Bitch was calling out commands to her dogs and Tattletale was giving them all direction. Ok that makes this much easier. They are all Oh Crap!

On of the ABB had stumbled near enough to bump me and was turning to strike. I didn't have time to think I just had to react. He was swinging a club as he was turning around. I ducked low and swept his legs. A lot harder than I remembered from training. Was I really that out of shape compared to my older self? No time to dwell on that. He was just hitting the ground as I popped up out of the leg sweep and brought my baton down hard on his head. I hit him hard and his head bounced off the ground and connected with the baton a second time. He was out cold. I started moving forward into the group. Last time they had scattered when Lung started exploding. Now he was too far out for his flames to hurt anyone but the dogs, and they could take the beating. Problem is if he spends too much time fighting the dogs, he wins. That was just the nature of his power. The longer he fights the stronger he gets. The bugs I had on him when he wasn't on fire could already feel the scales growing over his chest, neck, and arms. Other more sensitive areas were still flesh. Well I would just have to tell Armsmaster to use a lot of antivenom.

I sent my deadly bugs at his nether regions, ears, and eyes. They bit and bit and pried and bit some more. He reacted instantly and set himself on fire. I auto piloted a kill on him when several gang members spotted me in a void in the darkness. Three of them charged me and I stepped back out of sight. They were coming hard and fast and when they got to where they last saw me, they split off, one going front another going a little right and the last going a little left. I had stepped back and gone to my left so I was faced with righty. He had a club and was swinging blindly. I had a bug near the end, but lost it as it came up to speed. I still had the direction of the swing and bugs on his arms to sidestep and let his arm across my blade, slicing a long opening up his arm. He cried out and stumbled. I brought my baton down hard on his head as a follow up and his cries were silenced. I turned and pounced on the one that had gone straight. My knife dug into his shoulder and he nearly crumpled dropping his blade. I pushed off him and rolled back as he dragged himself away. I had expected a counter attack. He seemed to go down too easy. Then again I was used to fighting capes and they tended to be a little more resilient. Plus a lot had minor powers that could let them take a hit. I was getting up to go after the third when a fourth came at me. He had a katana.

_Ok that could kill me_, I thought, as I brought up my baton to parry the blade. I was moving sideways preparing to strike with my knife when our weapons connected and the katana knocked the baton right out of my hand. I twisted hard to avoid the blade as it came down. It sliced down my left arm and I dropped my knife. One strike and I lost both my weapons.

I was bleeding badly from the cut. I had to hope it wasn't deep, but the weakness of my grip made me nervous. He turned back bringing his weapon up in a cross cut meant to cleave me in two. I ducked and rolled to his side grabbing my knife from the ground and bringing it up as I moved to his back. I got it in just below his rib cage and turned it up aiming for his heart. You try and kill me and I'm not showing you any mercy. He dropped to the ground. My knife wasn't long enough to actually reach his heart, but there are a lot of other vital organs enroute.

His katana was still clutched tightly in his hand. I had to pry his fingers off to get the weapon free. I also searched him and found the sheath for it. I took this from him too and turned back to the conflict. This was taking too long. I wanted to reserve my deadliest bugs for Lung and in doing so hadn't had the less than lethal ones attacking the rest of the minions. Was that a trick like muscle memory I had developed? If so I would need a bit more practice. So far the fight had been decent. I had expected to own them outright, but they still managed to make me bleed. I did have options. I just wasn't sure which route to take. I could keep picking them off one by one in the alley. That had been fun, but I was still realizing that I would tire long before the rest of them were taken out. I had run every day for months leading up to this and was still feeling my body starting to tire with the exertion. I'd have to work on that more. Before I jumped back in time, I could have walked through these guys like they weren't even there. Now I was finding myself surprised when one bumped into me. Had my powers been more than reset? Had they diminished too? There wasn't time to dwell as the one who had gone left doubled back for me.

He had a gun on him that I hadn't noticed before. He wasn't running in headlong like the others had. He was walking slowly turning from side to side with his left arm extended out in front of him. It felt like he was trying to feel his way through the darkness and was ready to shoot the first thing he touched. I moved back behind him and started to follow him. I kept him in front of me as I reached out again to my swarm. I felt out for the damaging, but not deadly bugs I had in reserve. Bees, wasps, fire ants, horseflies. They all descended and started targeting the rest of the gang members. I had to focus to redirect some of them from going after the Undersiders. Odd. I'd have to spend more time figuring that one out too. There were maybe 15 or so of the ABB left standing. My swarm engulfed them. I couldn't hear any of their screaming, but my bugs could feel it. We were almost all still fighting in Grue's darkness and while I could get a feel for my surroundings, I couldn't imagine the terror of being bitten and stung in total sensory deprivation. They were crumbling now. Where before they had been attacking blindly or standing back to back with another gang member. Most were spazzing out trying to strike at any perceived enemy. One was following a building out of the darkness. He was still being attacked, but I doubled up the hurt and reached out for some spiders to tie him up.

Big mistake. I found two I wish I hadn't. They were both inside Lung and they weren't getting out. Gross. So gross. That was going to give me nightmares. The had gone _up_ into Lung. Two black widows and they were still biting. And Lung was only getting stronger. I had given him too much time fighting the dogs. I didn't think I could win this one now. He was blasting out flames across his whole body every few seconds. No way I could get anymore bugs on him now. This time the cavalry was already here and he was gearing up for them even as I wasted time on the minions.

The last of said minions were dropping to the ground. I turned my attention to the Undersiders. Grue was watching me now instead of Lung. He saw me looking at him and tensed. Tattletale and Bitch picked up on this. The darkness around me dissipated and I was left standing amidst the fallen. My knife in my left hand still dripped blood. My grip was barely strong enough to grasp it so I used spider silk to both secure the blade in my hand and cover the wound. Sadly the I didn't have silk enough to staunch the blood flow. My right hand held my new katana dripping my own blood. I was still in my black dress which really hadn't suffered much at all in the fight. Everyone had turned to look at me. Even Lung.

He roared and charged me. The dogs were on the far side and Bitch hadn't sent them in yet. He closed the distance quickly and I had to roll to my left to get away. I extended my katana and was rewarded with a resounding clang as the blade did little more than trip him. He stumbled and I took the advantage and struck him through his still fleshy back to pierce his heart.

He dropped. I hoped he would stay down this time. He didn't. Wings sprouted almost immediately from his back and his wound closed even before he rounded on me. He let loose a burst of flames that sent me running for cover. I didn't make it. Flames scorched my back and started burning through my dress. The pain was an 8. I had been burned before, but now I was on fire! I heard a whistle and Judas pounced on Lung.

"Angelica fetch!"

I felt teeth close around me and hope it wasn't Lung. I was still burning, but being covered in drool helped staunch the flames. I was lifted up and felt myself jerked sharply upward and then back down again.

"Drop it."

I fell to the ground rather unceremoniously. I was on the roof with the rest of them. At least we had a way to get down should Lung come up here.

"She is in bad shape. What do we do with her?"

"We call the boss. We can get her fixed up. She is gonna have some bad burns, but we if we get her a doctor she should live."

"Will we? You said the boss wanted us to hit hard. She took out the normals, but Lung isn't going down. She stabbed him in the heart and he wasn't down for more than a few seconds."

"I never run from a fight! We are kicking his ass. I don't give a damn if she couldn't handle a fight. I got this."

"You don't," I said through gritted teeth. "You lost this one. You took too long to take him out. You can't win. Run. Run!"

They didn't have time to respond. With Angelica out of the fight and Lung with wings, he had the upper hand. I was just starting to stand and he landed on the roof with us.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!" Angelica lept, but was caught in the air. Lung Snapped her neck with his foot long clawed hands. He threw her body down at Brutus and hit him mid leap.

"You fucker! You killed my Dog!" Wrong thing to say to a dragon.

"Grue cover!" Tattletale called out as she dove off the roof! We were two stories up so the fall wouldn't kill her, but she would still be hurting.

Lung had turned and breathed fire at the group. I lay flat against the ground, but could still feel the heat pass over me. All my bugs on them died. I could feel the flames getting hotter and crawled away to the side. I had dropped my katana when Angelica had first picked me up, but still held onto my knife. I charged at Lung and stabbed his overlong neck. I was barely able to nick him, but flames still spilled out and poured over my hands. They went cold as the nerve endings burned away. The last thing I saw was his jaws closing over my face. They crunched down through bone and brain.

0

0

0

A man sat in a chair at a desk facing a computer. He was a tall man, though one couldn't tell from his seated position. He was wearing an all black skin tight body suit with a white snake motif climbing from his ankle to end at his forehead.

He sat staring at a computer screen through a mask that had no eyeholes or any other openings. He sat motionless in utter silence save for his breathing.

A phone on the desk rang. He moved quickly and answered before the first ring could finish.

"Report." A command issued camly from one who was used to giving them.

"I need an ambulance bad." The voice was a whisper though pain and desperation still seeped into those words.

"Details. What happened."

"I had to jump off a roof. I broke my leg. I've tied it off,"

"What happened in the fight," he cut her off.

"We hit Lung hard, but he wouldn't go down. Another cape showed up and wiped the floor with the other ABB. She soloed them in Grue's darkness. She finished with them and Grue dropped his darkness on the alley. Lung was fighting the dogs, but when he saw her and his gang dead or dying, he went after her. She dodged him at first and stabbed him through the heart. He should have died, but he grew wings, got up and burned her bad. We got her up on the roof with us and had the dogs go after him. He flew over them and came at us on the roof. He killed Grue and Bitch. Regent made it off the roof with me, but didn't survive the landing. The other cape is dead too. She saved us from his first blast of fire, but Lung ate her face and then came after us. He tore Bitch in half and Grue got us covered in darkness before Lung torched the roof."

"Describe her."

"I need help bad boss," she mewled.

"Describe her." He repeated with a bit of impatience.

She let out a whimper, but answered. "She was wearing a short black dress. She had a dark mask with yellow eyes. She had a katana and a knife. She was quick. Even with Lung changed as he was, she could still dodge his claws and charge."

"And your own interactions with her?"

"She tried to save us. She told us we lost the fight already. That we took too long and we couldn't win now. She charged him with a knife on the roof and cut his throat open. She could have just run. She was protecting us."

"Do you think she was aware of your nature?"

"She knew Lung well enough to know we had lost. Yes. No. I don't know I didn't have time to get a read on her."

"Try now."

"She isn't a hero. There were a lot of bodies in that alley. Her blades were sharp and bloody. She had been looking to kill Lung not just hurt him. Maybe a vigilante or a Rogue. She must have been looking for Lung. She didn't hesitate to attack him, but she did wait for an opening. The dress didn't make sense though. Or maybe the mask didn't match. Her dress was kind of asian. With her katana and straight black hair, we thought she was one of them at first. She wasn't with the group when we first attacked, so I thought she might have joined them later and just didn't know they were on her side.

"You're rambling. Would she join us if given the opportunity."

"I. I think so. She scared me though. As soon as the darkness dropped she looked right at us. She was so still till Lung started moving. She hadn't even looked at him when she was already moving to react to him."

"A precog?"

"No I think if she was a precog she wouldn't have showed up. What precog would jump into a fight that would get them killed?"

"Indeed." He closed his phone and turned it off. He placed it back on his desk.

He sat silently for a time. His phone rang and he picked it up.

"Hey boss what's the plan? Are we still waiting? We took out Oni Lee easy enough. We ready to move on Lung next?"

"He is with his gang and is planning to move shortly. There will be another cape there. She may wield a knife and katana. She wears a short black dress that covers her neck and dark mask with yellow eyes."

"Oh. Is she going to be a problem?"

"Perhaps a solution. You have your orders go."

"Will do boss. Tattletale out."

Again he put down his phone and waited. A time later and the phone rang. He picked up before the first ring had finished.

"Report."

"Got her boss. She's going after the ABB as we speak."

"Get in position to provide support." Let her strike first. See if she can take Lung on her own. If not then hit him hard and get out with her."

"Will do boss. Tattletale out."

Coil hung up, but didn't put down his phone. Instead he called one of his captains.

"Sir," the man answered.

"I want you to track the movements of a cab. It dropped off a fare by the docks. I want to know where it picked her up along with a full description of her."

"Yes sir."

Coil didn't have long to wait. Five minutes later and his phone rang again.

"Report."

"Sir I have the cab picking up a fair at Brockton Bay station. I checked the times of the trains and if she went straight from the train to the cab she would have gotten off of the 67. I checked the routes and she could have boarded anywhere from here to Boston. From Boston there is a junction that could take her to anywhere going North into Canada to west out towards Chicago or beyond. I am working on getting an image of her from the station here. It will take time though to cross check at the other train stations. We don't have the connections in every station on the routes she might have taken to make this something I can accomplish tonight. Of the connections we do have, few are available at this hour sir."

"Noted. This is not a top priority. You return to this task in the morning. Dismissed."

"Sir."

He hung up the phone. She came in from a train station and came straight to the fight. Not to help Lung, despite her possible asian heritage. A vigilante wronged by Lung and the ABB? A former member ousted by his takeover? He would wait for the next report for more answers. From here to Boston? Well he had his other contacts in Boston his captains were unaware of. He would put a call in to Accord in the morning. Best not disturb him so late at night. He had upset the man once. It had nearly cost him his life. Not that Accord was aware of the transgression of course.

His phone rang again. He answered on the first ring.

"Report."


	6. Hemolymph 1-6

Hemolymph 06

We stopped on the main street and I handed him a 50. I didn't want to wait for him to make change, so I bolted from the cab, bag in hand, and headed down the side street. I reached out with my bugs and scanned the area. I found Lung and a group of 25 thugs standing about in the alley.

I felt a great weight lift from my shoulders. I wasn't too late. The Undersiders hadn't showed up yet. That left it to me to prepare an attack on Lung and half his gang. I could handle that.

I sent in my swarm to start tagging bodies discreetly. I landed a few no-see-ums on Lung's torso. I remembered Kaiser stabbing him through with a metal spear, and him still not staying down. If I hit him hard enough, before he could get going, then I ought to be able to bring him down. I didn't intend to kill him, but if I did, no matter. I could still make it work with my plans.

I had stopped in the shadows of an unlit doorway to don my costume. I would have prefered a place a bit more private to change, but anyone that could see me, would also need to be in my range. At the moment, that consisted of the 25 thugs, Lung, a family asleep in an abandoned building, a pair of drunks on the street, and drug dealer that had just made a sale to some teens. None had a line of sight to me, nor would they for the foreseeable future. I was actively searching for the Undersiders, but hadn't been able to identify any of them. Bitch's dogs would make their presence pretty obvious when they arrived.

I focused on my still growing swarm, selecting the bugs I would need. I started with the brown recluses climbing up Lung as discreetly as possible. They crept slowly up the inside of his pant legs. I couldn't move them up his bare chest without him noticing. Instead I had my black widows lower themselves on his mask.

One by one they descended from the dragonflies that escorted them. I had the spiders landing on his forehead, then crawling to hide at and under the edges of his ornate metal mask. There they stayed, just out of view of his minions, but not in a place where Lung might feel them move.

I set more bugs to address the rest of the 25 thugs. The useless ones mashed themselves between the hammers and firing pins of the guns. Other spiders started weaving knives in their sheaths, hammers shut, and guns in their holsters. Several of the thugs had melee weapons in hand. One guy even had a katana. I wondered how my spider silk would hold up against it. No sense in testing it though, at least not unless it was in a controlled environment, and that certainly wasn't tonight. The guy with the katana and the others, who already had their weapons in hand, I had another idea for.

I turned my attention back to the abandoned buildings. I needed something heavy that could fall with a bit of a nudge. I found a collection of wall mounted a/c units on what was a decent place in the 90's. I had a few bugs testing out the supports, and found two that seemed ready to fall. I had black widows begin working, dragging lines from both the a/c units and the weapons in hand. Dragonflies assisted with traversing the distances. When I would need to, I would have my bugs break the supports, and the a/c units would fall to the ground. I made sure to stagger the threads. If the weapons were tugged all at once, the thugs might have a good enough grip, collectively, to stop the a/c units in midair. This way they would each have to fight the weight of the a/c unit separately. It was something to the effect of, 'a single stick is easily broken, but a bushel only bends', or something like that. Tonight I needed to break a lot of sticks.

I had just donned my mask and was checking the time. It was just after midnight. I was already in position, and was nearly finished securing the lines I would need. I still hadn't seen any sign of the Undersiders. That worried me. I remembered Tattletale telling me how I nearly got us all killed the first time I fought Lung. She had lived long enough in that reality to tell Coil about me being a hero. So instead, Coil had told her to wait longer, and to watch out for me. I had figured he would have sent them in already. It was about this time that they had joined me. It was the reason I had tried showing up earlier, just to make sure I would only be attacking Lung, regardless of the presence of the Undersiders. That worried me. Maybe in the other reality, he had sent them early, and I would win there too. This could be an alternate he would later drop. Either way, I had a plan, and I had to follow through.

I checked my gear again. I had everything I thought I might need. My gun was already in hand, I had dragged the fire blanket up the roof, above the alley. If Lung got fired up, I could pull the blanket down to cover me, but only if I was in the alley. If I wasn't, then I would have to rely on cover. My pepper spray, cell phone, and baton were tucked away under my armor. I had my knife strapped to my calf. I hadn't had time to fix up my capsaicin bugs yet. I had also abstained from rigging up any firebugs tonight. I had that can of cooking gel I could lather my bugs in, but against a pyromancer, it would be worse than useless.

I checked the time again. Five after midnight. No sense in delaying any longer. I gathered my swarm and started approaching the alley. I stood just around the corner and organized my bugs on me. What I was about to do could be considered utterly idiotic. No, not could. It was probably one of the most dangerous things I would be doing for a while.

I checked the bugs on Lung. I had placed about six black widows on his mask using dragon flies. Another six were waiting on more dragonflies in the air, and were ready to dive bomb the instant he might drop his flames. I had managed eight brown recluse spiders near his crotch. I didn't actually intend to bite him there. Well not only there. Two of the largest arteries, not protected by bone and organs, are on the insides of ones legs, up near the crotch. I was planning on pumping him full of venom from there. Then, if he still got up, I was thinking about taking his testicles.

Lastly, I checked the mosquitos I had on him. They were there to help me get a sense of his body's position and where I was aiming. I would need one, maybe two shots, to take him down.

In my nearly two years with the Wards, I had access to a gun range and personal instructors. I had become a damn good shot. Much of that was due to my abilities. If I could get a bug on a target, I could shoot it with a gun. At the peak of my powers, that was about eight blocks away. Today though it was a block and change. Even still, I could manage with that.

I moved my swarm clone into the alley and all conversation stopped. The swarm clone was far larger than any I had used before. I had always aimed to have them resembling me as closely as possible. That was due to the fact that my enemies knew what I looked, and would be looking for a clone the same size as me. Now though, no one knew me, and so I had decided to go bigger. Currently, the swarm stood a little over seven-foot, and if it was solid, would have weighed nearly 300 pounds.

I gave them a single second before I took aim and fire two shots in quick succession from cover behind and through my decoy. I had my bugs all chirp, click, or buzz in time with the shots. The first hit Lung right in the heart. The second went high. My aim was perfect. My arm was steady. Sadly though, steady didn't account for the kickback. Eighteen year old me was able to empty a clip and still manage both accuracy and precision. Fifteen year old me was nearly floored after the first shot.

As planned though, Lung dropped, and the bugs on him struck. The rest of the gang stood immobilized for an instant. Some took even longer to recover. It didn't matter. It was too late for all of them.

The ones with guns already drawn, raised them against my decoy. The others fumbled for release of their weapons, or held back, waiting for a chance to charge me with melee weapons.

"No" I murmured through my swarm, as I raised a hand to call a stop, and brought a moth to the barrel of each gun. The thugs didn't listen, but instead tried to open fire. Not a shot rang out. Hammers hit chitin, but not the firing pins. Before they could check their guns, I swiped my decoy arm to the side. At the same time, I released the first a/c unit. The moths took flight as the guns flew from their hands and over the building behind them.

Suddenly I felt them, the steady pounding marked their arrival. The gang members could feel the rumbling too. I could see the fear and panic starting to spread. They stood afraid. I stood relieved. The Undersiders were arriving. The fight was almost over at this point, but I could drag it out a bit longer to give them a show.

I was keeping tabs on Lung all during this. He wasn't moving. I sent a few flies near his nose. He wasn't breathing. I lay a spider on his jugular, but didn't feel a pulse. He should be fine right? His source of powers was in his head not his heart. Should I have let him transform a bit before shooting him?

I didn't have time to worry about this as the first of the dogs appeared. Judas was charging straight for the gangbangers. He engaged and all the attention was now on that fight. I took the distraction to disperse my decoy. I could feel the other two dogs landing on the roof above to let their passengers off. Shortly after darkness filled the area. The last of the a/c units dropped, and those thugs with melee weapons, soon found themselves holding nothing. Most of them at least. Some had moved far enough away from where they had stood to find the lines attached to their weapons and removed them. No matter. Of the three that held weapons, all were blunt objects and were attacking Judas. He was tearing them apart.

Things were going well. Lung was down and out, the Undersiders were here and mopping up, and I wasn't in any immediate danger. I had worried about stepping right in against Lung with a full crew. Even with preparations, things could go horribly wrong. Nonetheless, I had accomplished what I had wanted. It wasn't just about winning the fight today. It was about winning the fight tomorrow too. The best way to do that was to beat an enemy so decisively that they never wanted to fight you again. That was why I took the chance and faced down Lung and his lackeys, walking right up to him, and gunning him down. I wanted them to think I was fearless, untouchable, and more importantly, unbeatable. I would also need to do some more work on Lung before he woke up.

I checked on Lung again. He still wasn't breathing. I had my bugs pull back, but sent one over to check the bullet hole. I found it nearly sealed up. So, he was still healing, but it seemed to take a while. I had no real way of pegging down his rate of healing, and I had started to worry I had killed him. He was halfway transformed the last time I saw his heart pierced. This time I hadn't given him a chance. Now I would have to balance keeping him alive, with keeping him dead enough that he couldn't fight.

I turned my attention to the rest of the mayhem. The last of the ABB was falling apart. Those that could run, were. Of the ones that couldn't, some were still trying to crawl away. There were a lot though, that were just lying there. I checked them quickly. They were all breathing, though two had some pretty bad wounds. Nothing for it though, as I wasn't about to stop and help them.

Tattletale had come out to the edge of the roof and was peering down at me behind my cover. I kept looking towards Lung, but kept a few bugs on her to mark any movements.

"Did you get him?" She called out.

There wasn't darkness around us anymore. There hadn't been for a bit, but I had been more focused on Lung.

"He's still alive," I answered with my natural voice.

"Doesn't look it."

I turned at this point and looked straight at her. I felt a brief stab of sadness. She looked much younger than I remembered. Her face was clean and unmarred, without any scar from Jack's blade. I held myself still, trying not to give anything away. At this point though, Grue had also come out to the edge to survey the scene, and I nearly lost myself.

"You did all this?" he asked.

I didn't answer, but instead reached out to my bugs. My body had no more reactions, but the unfortunate side effect of trying to push my emotions into my bugs was that a fair number were now collecting on him. Not biting or stinging, they were just trying to get close to him.

He was wearing his all black outfit, basically motorcycle leathers, and a motorcycle helmet. The facemask had a skull sculpted into it. My bugs were crawling over it now.

I tried pushing more bugs on the others to draw attention away from what I was doing to Grue. Tattletale was still gazing down at me, seemingly unaffected by the bugs that were crawling over her.

"You really saved us a lot of trouble," I felt Tattletale twitch at that. I turned back to look at her. Was this the prefered path Coil had chosen? That was a little scary. Sure this had been an easy win, but if I had showed up to find them already fighting, would that really have been that bad?

"How much trouble were you in?" I asked Tattletale. She wasn't wearing her typical vulpine grin. Could it have really gone that bad, or was she not liking what her power was picking up from me?

"We got word that Lung was coming after us tonight," Grue answered instead. "We were pretty freaked. We were arguing strategy for the better part of the day. We eventually decided, fuck it, we'd meet him halfway. Wing it. Not my usual way of doing things, but yeah."

""And how did that work out for you?"

"Wouldn't you know, his flunky Lee is there with a half-dozen guys, but Lung and the rest of his gang are nowhere to be found," he laughed at this. God how I had missed that laugh. He was so easy-going and carefree now. I couldn't remember the last time I had heard him laugh like that. He hadn't laughed at all after Bonesaw broke him.

"Lee is no slouch in fight, but there's a reason he's not leader of the ABB. He got spooked without his boss there and ran. I guess you're responsible for that?" Grue continued.

I looked back at Lung. The bullet wound had healed and I could feel a faint heartbeat. The spider venom would start spreading now.

"Holy shit is that Lung?! What did you do to him?"

"I shot him in the heart," I replied raising the gun that had taken him down. "And then I poisoned him."

"Lung is dead?" Grue said with a bit of awe in his voice.

"Not dead. His heart is still beating," Tattletale interjected. "You had spiders bite him."

"Black widows, and brown recluses. He heals to fast and the bullet wouldn't keep him down for long. I needed to make sure that once his heart started beating again, he still wouldn't be up for a fight."

Grue whistled at that. "You weren't holding back any were you?"

I smirked at that. It's funny, I was holding back.

"She was," Tattletale said to Grue in almost a whisper. He gave me another look from toe to tip.

"What's your name?"

I stayed silent for a moment. I didn't want to seem to volunteer it too easily.

"Right, kinda rude to just put you on the spot. Introductions. This is Tattletale," he said indicating Tattletale, who was wearing her skin-tight, full body costume. The purple and black colors, I had remembered, were a challenge to get right when I tried making her costume. "I'm Grue. The girl with the dogs," he started indicating Bitch. She wasn't in any costume, but I had kinda come to recognize what she wore as her costume anyway. She had on a plaid skirt, army boots, a torn-up sleeveless T-shirt, and a hard plastic dog mask.

"We call her Bitch, her preference, but in the interests of being P.G., the good guys and media decided to call her Hellhound instead. Last and certainly least, we have Regent."

Regent.

"Fuck you, Grue," he retorted, with his normal chuckle and artificial tone of voice to imply he wasn't offended. He is a sociopath by upbringing. I knew he could still feel things, but being raised by Heartbreaker, any emotions would be buried. It said something that he had chosen to leave that life. Saving Imp said a lot more about what he was capable of as a human being.

"The Undersiders, I take it. You can call me Monarch."

"A queen for our Regent?" Tattletale had that vulpine grin again.

I reached out to my swarm and called forth the bugs I had collected for Armsmaster. They were substitutes, but they should work. I drew them to me, covering every inch of my body. I had a Polyphemus moth land directly on my nose and spread its wings to cover my eyes. It had a wonderful effect of creating a set of brilliant false blue eyes with its wings.

"Monarch, like the butterfly," I replied when all were in place.

This seemed to get a chuckle out of Regent who had made his way over to the gathering.

"But those are moths," Tattletale interjected again. This time with a bigger grin.

"A bit of a buzzkill aren't you Tattletale? Yes, these are moths, but do you know how hard it is to find butterflies at night? Moths are at least nocturnal. Butterflies need time in the sun before their wings can beat," I replied a little vexed. Her power was starting to annoy me. It was what she wanted to do, of course. It was just who she was. I could tolerate this bit, and it was better her picking at the moths, than anything else.

"Ha buzzkill! Get it? Cause of the bugs right?" Regent asked looking at both Grue and Tattletale in turn. Grue let out a little chuckle, and Tattletale smiled a bit at the banter.

I tilted my head to the right as I appraised him. I guess it was kinda funny.

"So Monarch, you new in town? I haven't heard of anyone with bug powers in the city. Or anywhere really," Grue ventured.

"I live here. It's my first night out in costume in this city," I partially lied. It was my first night out as Monarch in this city. Raiding the ABB, I hadn't worn more than a hoodie, so that didn't count as in costume either. Speaking of the ABB.

I checked on Lung again. The venom was coursing through his veins. His heartbeat was there, his breathing shallow, but he wouldn't be up for a fight anytime soon. I thought about binding him in web, but decided against it. He could burn right through it. It wouldn't be the first thing he tried, but it would be the second.

"Just you then?" Grue asked.

"Just me. It's not like there is a friend finder app for capes looking for a crew."

"Ha! Yeah I guess that would be a little difficult," I had missed Grue a lot over the past year and a half. He had been my first boyfriend. He had been my first in a number of things too. I hadn't ever really gotten over losing him. I wouldn't have to, if I got my way.

"Well hey if you're looking for crew, we could certainly use you…" he trailed off. Tattletale had whipped her head to look at him. No not him, just past him.

"Cape coming in. We gotta scram. We can talk later Monarch. You got a way we can get in touch?."

I hadn't expected this so soon. I had picked up several prepaid phones this morning, but I hadn't expected to give out so many numbers so soon. Gathering my bugs, I wrote out the numbers in the air.

"I'll text you mine. Bitch lets move."

They mounted the dogs. Bitch, who was tending her dogs during our conversation, stared me down. I looked down, relaxed my stance, and acted submissive for her. She looked away and took off on Brutus.

"Well, Monarch, a cape is gonna show up in less than a minute. You did us a solid by dealing with Lung, so take my advice. Someone from the Protectorate shows up, finds two bad guys duking it out, they're not going to let one walk away. You should get out of here."

"I have to take care of a few things with Lung before they arrive. Less than a minute? I can manage," I replied. Her only answer was an even wider smile. I amused me how predatory it was. She might think she had me pegged, but I knew she could be wrong, and had been before. It would be a dangerous game of cat and mouse for a while. I could play that game though.

Grue gave me a salute as they took off over the rooftops into the night. I could just hear Armsmaster approaching in his motorcycle. I rushed over to Lung. My bugs had collected an empty ziploc bag while I had talked to Tattletale. It was ready and waiting by his head by the time I got there.

I pulled out my knife and got to work. I carved out his eyes first. They were necrotic with the poison from my spiders and thus useless. I instead pried open his mouth and pulled out his tongue. I tried cutting from underneath, sliding the blade to the back of his throat. I had to be happy with just the tip as I could feel Armsmaster closing in quickly. I dropped the part of the tongue in the ziploc and tossed it down the alley. My bugs dragged it the rest of the way to my backpack along with the fire blanket I had on the roof.

I was putting distance between myself and Lung and had just sheathed my knife when he rounded the corner. He drew up his Halberd and swept the scene with it, scanning with his visor too no doubt. The weapon was about six-foot long, but had more gadgets and gizmos than I could remember. The blade was sharp enough, but with the plasma injectors, he could cut through almost anything. Well save an Endbringer. For that he needed his nano tech, which he hadn't made just yet. This blade, though had also housed an emp at one point, and should currently house a grappling hook. Right now it was pointing at me.

"You gonna fight me?" he called out.

"Wasn't planning on it," I replied. I couldn't say I was a good guy, not with his lie detector on.

"That doesn't mean you wont fight me. So are you a hero or a villain?" He hadn't lowered the weapon in the slightest. That annoyed me.

"Yes," let you lie detector figure that one out.

"Yes to what. You won't fight me? You are a hero? Or you are a villain?" I could almost hear his teeth grinding in his response. I shouldn't antagonize him too much. I needed a favor after all.

"Think of me more as a rogue. I want to save lives, but I'm not going to bind myself with kids gloves to do so. I'm not here to fight you, but if you attack me, I'm going to stand my ground."

"You think you could take me little girl?" he smiled a bit at that. He had lowered his blade to a more defensive position than aggressive.

"I did just wipe the floor with Lung and 25 of his gangbangers." Those little girl comments were starting to annoy me.

"You probably got lucky," he supplied

"You might think that, but trust me when I say that my luck runs out pretty quick. No, I took down Lung because I'm just that good."

"All on your own?" he seemed to still doubt me.

"The Undersiders showed up, but by that time, Lung was down for the count, and the rest of his thugs were scrambling."

"And where are they now? Did you fight them off too?"

"My fight was with Lung. Their fight was with Lung. We had no reason to go after one another. Same situation here and now. I came here for Lung, just as you did. I don't want to fight you, and you don't want to fight me. So, with no reason to go after each other, why don't you lower your weapon?" I asked.

He took a moment, but he did eventually slap his halbert to his back and relax his stance. "You're a new face and you look like a villain. That's two reasons not to trust you. Whats your name kid?"

"Monarch, and stop calling me kid," that was really starting to piss me off.

"You even have a name like a villain. A child who thinks herself a queen."

Was he trying to get his ass kicked? No, he was just stupidly blunt. He wasn't saying it to antagonize me, despite the fact that was exactly what he was doing. Still I had to put this villain nonsense to rest.

I reached out to my swarm again. Just like with the Undersiders, I gathered the moths to me. I had them cover every surface of my body with their outstretched wings. Lastly I mounted the polyphemus moth on my nose again.

"Monarch, like the butterfly. Now can we drop this villain thing?" I asked as calmly as I could manage.

"Those are moths, and none of them look like the monarch butterfly," he replied with a half-smile.

"You got me. I don't have any butterflies tonight. They don't fly well at night, unlike moths, which look close enough when you aren't hooked up to a search engine," I confessed. "So are you gonna keep grilling me, or focus on Lung, who is starting to come to?"

He walked over to Lung's body with long powerful strides. He held a hand up to the side of his visor and pressed a few buttons.

"Black widows and brown recluses. Multiple bites along major arteries. Be sure you treat for those or parts may rot off," I supplied.

He grunted in reply. He then bent down and injected Lung with, what I assumed, was a tranquilizer. He then pulled a pair of heavy-duty restraints, seemingly out of nowhere. These he cuffed to Lung, then drilled a few holes in the asphalt, and finally bolted the cuffs down. He turned back to me as he stood to his full height.

"You need to be more careful. If he wasn't still breathing, we would be having a very different conversation. As it happens, Lung's abilities include healing. The venom may do damage, but if a cape can heal at all, and they are still alive at the end of a fight, they don't suffer any lasting effects. Were this any other cape, I'd be placing you under arrest. As it stands, we have something else to discuss."

He must not have noticed I had cut out Lung's eyes and tongue yet. Best to keep him from noticing then.

"I'm not joining the wards. You can take credit for Lung, but that's a favor you owe me. I'm well aware of Lung's abilities, and the rest of the capes in his gang. Were it any other cape, I wouldn't have needed multiple bites to take him down. I may be a new face, but I know what I'm doing. Oh and I'm calling in that favor tonight."

He seemed a little put out that I had interrupted him. "You say the rest of the rest of the capes in his gang."

"Bakuda and Oni Lee. Tinker bombmaker, and teleporting assassin, respectively. A deadly combination, given how unique Oni Lee's power is. He leaves a ghost of himself behind for ten seconds after a jump. Rig him up with a bomb, and he can pop in a location, pop out, and have the ghost detonate the bomb. The two make a strong pair. It would be best to move Lung to the Birdcage, as soon as you get a chance. His gang will be looking to get him out, and with infinite suicide bombers, they are likely to succeed."

"I'll take that under advisement. You seem to know your enemy. I'd ask why you went after them, but I'm more interested in hearing about this favor you think I owe you," he said crossing his arms.

"I hand you a badass cape. You take credit. Your reputation goes up. Therefore, you owe me a favor."

"Indeed. Well you can ask, but I won't make any promises to deliver."

"Fair enough. This is a Priority 1 cape. There is a very small window of opportunity, but it has to be off the record."

"Priority 1 status is reserved for S class threats. Capes like the Endbringers, Sleeper, or the Slaughterhouse 9. You are saying that one such cape is here in Brockton Bay?" He had tensed at this and hit a button on his visor.

"Yes, there is a Priority 1 cape in Brockton Bay. I also said that this would have to be an off the record favor. No recordings, and no broadcastings. Please turn off your communicator. There are spies in the PRT, and if they get wind that we know about the threat, she may be moved before we can get to her."

He took a minute again before he said or did anything.

"You are telling the truth."

"You need Dauntless and Triumph. We can end this now before it's too late. You also need to delete this recording. Anything written down, or kept in digital format, no matter how secure, can be found. Consider this a shadow operation."

"Confirm," he stated to no one present. "Explain."

I waited on him. "Problems?" I asked.

"Dauntless is occupied,"

"Then find someone who can fly long distances, and can carry passengers. You need to move faster, as in, this needs to be taken care of in the hour."

"Yes fine, and come yourself. She may think that's all we need, but with an S Class threat, I'm not taking any chances."

"A Priority 1," I clarified.

"Do you even know the difference?" he asked me.

"A Priority 1 includes S Class threats, A Class threats that have the potential of becoming S Class threats, and capes that have a unique ability that can counter an existing S or A class threat. An attack on, or breakout from the Birdcage would also qualify. All, save for the counter cape, are preauthorized with kill orders."

"You know our manual," he wasn't asking, but stating a fact.

"I've done my homework," and I had. I had spent just shy of two years working under rules and regulations, bending those rules I could, and covertly breaking the ones I couldn't. I knew their rules and regulations inside out.

"So this is a counter cape then. And who might this counter?" he asked.

"No more questions till the required capes arrive," I answered turning from him. I reached out with my bugs just remembering the rest of the ABB members on the ground around us. I would need to tie up any loose ends here. Lung might be on tranquilizers, and not on speaking terms with Coil, but that didn't mean the rest of his minions were completely out of it, nor unwilling to dish the dirt for a quick pay off. I checked pulses and breathing. There was one who was awake, though feigning sleep. He was close to the wall I had sent the weapons over.

I sent my bugs to search the roof. I found that most of the weapons had actually ended up there. A few had traveled fast enough to make it over the lip on the far side, and fall back down to the ground. I found an assortment of guns, bats, and blades still on the roof. my bugs found a short knife that they could move and I started rigging them up in teams. They dragged the knife, first over to where the 'sleeping' thug was, then up the lip of the wall. I also had a pair of dragon flies with black widows, running a line to the opposite roof.

When the knife reached the top, I had it tied with web, and looped over the line running to the other roof. My bugs push it over the edge, and it swung back and forth near the roof lip. I placed a few more dragonflies on it to slow its swing till it was at rest.

I turned away from my work to look back at Armsmaster. He had turned away as well and was looking back to the floating Protectorate fortress over the bay. I walked forward to watch for the approaching capes with him. I made sure I was in his peripheral vision, and kept his line of sight away from my bugs.

With him unawares, and unlikely to pick it up if he went back to a recording, I lined up my target. Gravity would do most of the work, but with only one shot, I needed to be on target. I had a few more bugs start moving the looped line further out into the alley, away from the wall. I placed a fly over his heart, and lined a few more bugs directly under the knife to get a sense of wind. When I was sure of my aim, I cut the looped line. The knife dropped through the air. I held my breath and watched Armsmaster with my bugs. I was about to murder right under his nose. If he caught on…

"Armsmaster," said rather loudly, just as the knife hit home. "What's taking so long?" I finished keeping his attention on me, as blood drained from the body.

"If this is a counter cape, we will need to contact the Triumvirate,"

"You can do that after securing her. You don't have time to involve them." I also really didn't want to fall under their scrutiny, nor alert Eidolon that there was another cape that could outdo him.

"We have procedures,"

"Yes, but those require a confirmation of the cape, their abilities, and further confirmation that they aren't going to be a threat themselves. You don't have any of that."

"Perhaps they are for you?" he retorted.

"Is this the cape?" Aegis interrupted and he touched down with Triumph.

"Aegis, Triumph, this is Monarch. She says she knows of a Priority 1 cape."

"Monarch, is it safe to assume you can tell the difference between Aegis and Triumph?" Armsmaster asked again.

"Aegis," I started, turning to the younger cape in a rust and silver costume. "Can you carry the pair of us?"

"You and Triumph, yes. You and Armsmaster, no. Want to tell me who you are and what's going on?"

"No, now lets move. Grab me and Triumph and take us up. I'll give direction from there." I checked my backpack again. It was safe and secure. No one was going to find it any time soon. I had also made sure to collect the webbing I had used to murder the thug. Armsmaster would be more focused on Lung right now, and if I was lucky, wouldn't be checking the body till it had been dead long enough they might confuse the time of death. It wouldn't do to have him realize I had killed someone while standing right next to him.

"I don't fly girl. Or did you forget that?" Armsmaster called out.

"You got Lung. Or did you forget that?" I retorted. "Aegis, up."

He looked back to Armsmaster who grudgingly nodded. "Hold on tight," he said to us as he lifted off.

We were up and out of earshot of Armsmaster in a matter of seconds. "North," I told him. We turned to follow the boardwalk. I didn't want Armsmaster or any other observers to figure out where we were going just yet. After we had cleared out of ABB territory I had Aegis head west, away from the bay.

"So you gonna us what the hell this is all about? I had Miss Militia personally chase me down and order me out here. Why isn't she using the coms, and who the hell are you?" Aegis exasperated.

"Classified," I lied. "Rory," I called over the wind rushing past us. "Dinah is the Priority 1. She is not a danger, but in danger. Take Carlos," I felt them both flinch at my casual mention of their names. "Go to her home, and get her out of the city. Take her far away, but tell no one, save her parents, what's going on. Keep her away from the PRT. They are compromised and can't be trusted. Don't use any PRT, Ward, or Protectorate safe houses either. Lastly, don't trust any other capes with her identity or location. Rory, you are going to be staying with her while she is in hiding. Carlos, I can't expect you to drop everything, but they will need you if you're willing. Two months at the least. Think you can manage?"

"No now what the hell is going on, how do you know who we are, and who the hell is Dina?" Aegis/Carlos asked a little vexed.

"Classified."

"You keep saying that, but I don't think it means what you think it means. Now who is Dinah in danger from?" Triumph/Rory asked.

"Everyone once they find out what she can do. Which is why it has to be just you two. I can't trust any of the other members of the Protectorate, the Wards are run by Piggot, and the PRT is infiltrated by villains."

"And what about you. You're not coming with us?" Triumph asked.

"I have to find the cape that is actively hunter her. Two months to deal with him at the least. I'll contact you when it's safe to return. Right, you need to get rid of your phones and get disposable ones. When you do, text me at this number," I said as I took out a piece of paper and pen. I handed him the slip. "The phone stays off so they can't find me either. When you're not using yours, take out the battery."

"Paranoid much?" Carlos quipped.

"Rory, should the wrong cape get his hands on her, she will be a slave. She will be drugged up to be lucid enough to use her powers, but not enough to ever get free. The wrong cape gets a hold of her, and you will never see her again. Am I being too paranoid?"

"How do you even know about her?" Rory replied.

"Carlos?" I asked him.

"Classified?"

"Yep, now stealth is a priority, but if you encounter resistance, kill orders are in place for any cape that tries to get in your way regardless of affiliation. This goes for anyone from the local Wards, all the way up to the Triumvirate. There are perhaps only 6 Priority 1 counters in the world. Dinah makes the seventh. She cannot be lost, understand?"

They both nodded. I let that sink in. I was lying my head off, but I needed them to be alert. Cauldron might try to get their hands on her at some point in the future, and if they called in a favor, anyone might be after Dinah. The best way to keep them from finding her though, was to make sure they didn't even know to look for her. That would hinge on Aegis. If he didn't go…

"So Carlos," I said looking at him directly. "Are you in or out?"

"Is she a threat to others? Are we hiding her to protect the world from her, or her from the world?" He asked. He was dead serious.

"Both. Directly, she isn't a threat to anyone. If a bad guy, or a good guy gets his hands on her though… Game over."

"If you're wondering, Dinah is worth protecting. She is innocent. She would never hurt anyone if she could help it. And from what you're saying Monarch," he stated turning to me, "she might not ever hurt someone?"

"With the two of you, she will save the world. If not, then she may doom it," I answered him.

"In or out Carlos?" Rory asked this time.

"I'm in. What do we do?"

"Go in from the air. Drop straight down to their roof and use the door from the roof to access the building. Rory knows where she lives and can give you direction there. When you have her, head straight up again till you have cloud cover. Then head out to see till you are clear of land. From there head north or south. Stay out of major cities, areas with surveillance, or areas with any kind of cape presence. Keep your heads down and keep on the move. Get out of PRT jurisdiction if you can. That means South and Central America and the Caribbean."

"What about money? We aren't about to start stealing food, and if we can't contact any capes, we aren't going to find any places to stay without cash."

"Dina can help with finances. You should be able to figure out what I mean when you meet up with her. Remember, go straight there and straight out."

"Got it. So what do we do with you?" Rory asked.

"Put me down up ahead, I'll show you where," I replied.

I had one last dead drop of cash left. It was a few major intersections ahead. There wasn't much left, but I figured it would do. I indicated our destination and Carlos put us down.

I had bugs moving before we had even touched down, so when Carlos did let go of me, I was already covertly pulling a line of silk with my bag of money towards me. I reached down and picked it up when it was near enough. Rory had noticed the bag by the time I was reaching down for it. I reached in pulled out the last bit of cash I had from the ABB raid.

"Here is a couple grand. It won't last you more than a few weeks, but again, she can help with the finances." I said handing the money to Rory.

"Thank you," he replied accepting the money and stashing it in awkwardly in a pocket on his skin-tight suit.

"Maybe you should take this too," I said handing him the backpack. Carlos chuckled at the awkwardness.

"Now go!"

And with that Carlos took hold of Rory and flew straight up. I had to trust that they would be successful. I couldn't be seen anywhere near them. I had already risked discovery by Coil enough tonight. Maybe not though. I tried to think back.

Had he known I wasn't a villain. Yes, he had told Tattletale after all. Had he known about my conversation with Armsmaster after the Undersiders fight? Hard to know. Would he be watching the area, or keeping tabs on Dinah? Keeping tabs on Dinah most certainly. But that's why I had tried this right after the fight against Lung.

If I remembered how his powers worked, he would need to hear back from how the Undersiders fight against Lung had gone before he could be sure this was the future he would want. At that point he would be able to split time again. That should though, leave him only the time it took for us to organize and head out, to realize we were mobilizing, and do so himself. Where he might have the advantage of having eyes and maybe a few operatives in place, Aegis and Triumph would make that battle heavily one-sided. Even more, they could call on both the Protectorate and Wards, should Coil mount a full offensive. I didn't think that Coil was smart enough to beat out the combined power of those groups of capes, nor was he stupid enough to risk it.

No, if he was aware of what was going on, he would likely wait in the shadows and use his contacts to track her down.

For now though there was little else I could do, save trying to chase them down and provide support. Doing that though, would out me as having been involved, much like how I was outed as a hero in the first fight against Lung and the Undersiders.

I searched the area for shops and did find a womans shoe store. It would have been most girls dreams to raid a shoe store like this, but I wasn't most girls. I used my bugs to open the door so I could get in. The alarm started going off, but I would be in and out with what I needed before too long. My bugs had found a pair of running shoes I would be able to fit in. I checked the price and left enough to cover the shoes on the counter with their box. The shoes themselves I took with me out the way I had come in. I was dangerously low on funds at the moment. I would need whatever I got in that lunchbox tomorrow.

Shoes in hand, I headed home. Today had been a long day. I would be happy to be getting home and back to my bed.


	7. Hemolymph 1-7

1.07 Hemolymph

Walking back towards home, I stopped before I was too close. I found a secluded area and started changing. I had just stripped down to my sports bra when I heard police sirens. I checked the direction. I relaxed a little when I realized they were heading to the shoe store, and not to Dinah.

I finished taking off the rest of my costume and stuffed it in the last of my ziploc bags. I put on the new shoes, and started jogging back wearing little more than skin-tight sofies and a sports bra.

I was under a mile from home and scanning the house when I stopped in my tracks. My dad was sitting in the kitchen watching the front door.

He didn't do this last time. I remembered he had said something the next morning, but he was never waiting up like this the first time around. What could have prompted this kind of change? I had been gone all day sure, but would he have known that? True I hadn't left a note either. Could he be worried about me with the brain injury?

Sadly, the why was a little less important than what I was going to do about it. If I walked in, we would have a talk. It could go either way, but I'd be at risk of being grounded, as dumb a fear as that might sound. I remembered him threatening to put bells on the doors. Not that I wouldn't get my bugs to handle those, but I didn't like the notion of our relationship deteriorating that quickly.

So if I didn't go home, then what? Find a hotel room for the night and go back in the morning? That still wouldn't excuse my absence. Plus, a fifteen year old girl getting a hotel room at this hour would send up red flags. I didn't want to sleep on the street tonight either. I could find someplace safe to stay with ease. But again, that wouldn't excuse my absence and might drive us further apart. I had to make a decision. Face my dad? No.

I turned and started walking back into town. I pulled out my phone and put in the battery. The phone powered up and already I had a text message.

Thanks again for the help. We owe you 1. Ever need a favor, call whenever ; ) Tt

I checked the time on the text. It read as one minute ago. That sent a shiver down my spine. It might be too risky to be around her.

Maybe not though. The message could be time stamped from when the phone turned on. It might not be Tattletales powers at work. Still it made me a little nervous. It also gave me my solution.

Need that favor. Need a place 2 stay 2night. Monarch

Next I dialed my house. I could feel my dad jump when the phone rang. He rushed over to it and answered on the second ring.

"Hey dad!" I started.

"Taylor! Where the hell are you! Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"I'm fine dad, I'm over a friend's house. I'm sorry I didn't call earlier. We had started watching Star Wars and just finished 'Return of the Jedi'. I should have called earlier, I'm sorry about that."

"Taylor if these are the bullies or someone else, tell me you are fine. If you are safe tell me your mother's full name."

Right I remember him doing this when I was first joining the Undersiders and hadn't made it home in time for dinner. Looking back on that I realized how dumb not calling ahead of time had been.

"Annette Rose Hebert"

"Taylor I have been going out of my mind with worry here. Its two in the morning. When are you planning on coming home?"

"Oh, actually I thought I should spend the night. Her parents are asleep and she doesn't have a car. I thought about taking the bus."

"No! No buses. Not this late. I'll pick you up, where are you."

"She lives outside the city dad. It's a bit of a drive. Why don't I just spend the night, and they can drive me back in the morning?"

"Taylor its a school night. You have to be up in the morning. You cannot be out late like this, especially with a head injury. You told me you were going to be taking it easy. Out till two in the morning without a phone call is not taking it easy!"

"I know I'm supposed to be taking it easy dad. The doctors also said I should be taking off school for a while, so no I don't have class in the morning. We were going to sleep in a bit and then head over to the library."

"Who is we, and don't they have to be up for classes?" I could hear the exasperation in his voice. He was close to exploding already. Justifiably so, now that I thought about it. I had just been hospitalized after gushing blood from my nose, mouth, and ears. Maybe the eyes too. I wasn't sure about that. I hadn't asked, and neither the doctors, nor Amy had said anything about it.

"We, is me and Lisa, staying at her parents house. And no, she is homeschooled, so she doesn't need to be up in the morning for class."

"Why is this the first time I'm hearing about Lisa and why are only calling me now?"

"Dad I don't have a cell phone and I didn't think we would be up this late. I'm sorry Dad, I really wasn't paying attention to the time." Lies lies lies. I hadn't thought he would be staying up like this. I had also thought getting a ride from the flying capes would get me home much quicker. It had, but even still, it was late. Worse, I couldn't blame him. In retrospect, I should have called and left a message saying I would be out late or something. This was one of those incredibly stupid things I had told myself I wouldn't be doing. So much for that.

"Taylor you can't do things like this. Do you have any idea how worried I have been? I already called the police."

"The police?!" This was way over the top. If there was a missing person report on me the same night Lung was taken down, Diana was evacuated, and Triumph and Aegis disappeared, it might be enough red flags for any interested parties to find me out.

"Yes, I called the police, who told me you had to be missing for 24 hours before they would do anything. So no, they weren't any help."

Ok, so things weren't as complicated as I had feared. No police involvement yet was a good thing. I still had a pissed off dad to worry about though. Maybe it would have been better to just face him. Call me a coward, but that wasn't something I wanted to do. I knew he would be upset and I thought it would be better to be the absent minded daughter, caught up having fun with a new friend, than the wayward daughter, out in her underwear at 2:00 am.

"I'm sorry dad, I just got so caught up finally spending time with another girl like me that I just sorta forgot about everything else."

"What about your friends at school, what about Emma?"

Emma. What about her. I hadn't even considered going back to school. Ever. Leviathan would be here in a month, if I kept things chaotic enough. There wouldn't be schools for another two months after that either. Maybe I should though. Not to get revenge, but just to make sure my absence wouldn't be noted.

"Things aren't better at school?" I had let the silence stretch while I had pondered. I waited a bit again before responding.

"No." I said, putting as much hurt into my voice as possible. It wasn't hard. All I had to do was bring up memories of the dead. Memories of battles lost, and the good capes that fell. Remembering losing Grue to Bonesaw, Regent to Behemoth, Brockton Bay to the horrors that befell it. The End. It was all I could do to bring myself back to the present. I had never had time to grieve for them all. One day I might. Not tonight though. I had to steel myself tonight.

"Alright. Just tell me you're safe. Tell me you'll be home tomorrow. You can't imagine how worried I have been."

I could though. I really could.

"I'm fine dad. Better than fine. I'm happy," happy to have a second chance. Happy to have you back in my life again, even if we are having a bit of a tiff. I was truly grateful he had worried.

"Alright kiddo. We are going to have a talk about being responsible when you get home. But I'm glad your happy. If you need a ride in the morning give me call. I want to meet this friend of yours some time."

"Will do. I love you dad."

"I love you too Taylor," and with that he hung up.

Was I a horrible person for lying and manipulating my dad? I was worried I already knew the answer to that. I had thought briefly about telling him what I was really up to, but I banished that thought almost as soon as I had it. If someone, like say Coil, decided to torture my father for information on me and my plans, the less my father knew, the better.

Sadly that scenario was entirely likely. I had learned, after the fact, that Coil had done that to Lisa. He might have done that to all of the Undersiders too. That last part I had no real way of knowing. Speaking of Lisa, I hadn't gotten a text back from her yet. She could be sleeping. Or Coil could be telling her to wait.

I assumed she would say yes. She did owe me a favor. Plus she would be looking to recruit me. No doubt she would need to vet me before, but I could honestly tell her I had no interest in joining the wards, and for the moment, this job was about bringing in lots of money.

The problem with staying with the Undersiders was the distance I would have to travel again. I would now have to go back to the docks, maybe an hour run. Walking would almost triple it. There weren't many bus routes that ran at this time and I might be waiting an hour just for them to show up. I could call a cab, but that would also raise suspicion. Grue wouldn't have access to a car right now. I would have to take the lesser of the evils and jog it. Or just call a cab…

I really didn't want to walk the whole way, and I was tired enough that I almost considered just sneaking back into my own bed and risking my dad catching me at home.

I decided to continue walking back into town, don my costume, call a cab, and ride the rest of the way. The ABB and Coil would be the only two factions that might be looking for me right now. Maybe the local Protectorate too. The ABB would be an issue if they figured me out. Coil, not so much really. He would know everything about my civilian life once I joined the Undersiders, and my civilian life wouldn't give him much.

I was more worried about him finding out about my future than my past. The 15 year old girl I was now, I hadn't been in a long time. Three years or so. The me I am now would totally blindside him. I had fought no less than ten different S-Class threats. I had lost to some of those foes, but beaten a good number of others. What was Coil compared to the gods I had killed.

Before I inflated my own ego too much, and made so stupid villain mistake like monologuing, I got a text back from Tattletale.

Hey, sorry I'm slow. You need a place for the night? Call for directions. Tt

First I'd need a cab. I figured I was far enough from my home I could call without worrying someone could find me. I had walked for twenty minutes or so straight to downtown. Right now I was near a group of lower class apartments. I was a block or two away from the upper class ones. I called the cab company and told them I'd be waiting there. They told me a cab would be there in twenty minutes.

Reaching the area I donned my cape again. The shoes I had just 'bought' were kind of useless, now that I was back in costume. I put them in the ziplock and stashed them in the alleyway near the intersection I was meeting the cab at. I was stashing a lot of miscellaneous stuff all over the place. I still had my art supplies near ABB territory. I had an arsenal of weapons from the fight tonight also in ABB territory. Lastly, I had a biological sample I would need to pick up down there too. At least I remembered where this stuff was. Better yet it was all in the same area.

When the cab arrived, he was a little startled to see me to say the least. I can't imagine its every night you drive around with a cape sitting right behind you. The $50 I handed him when I got in the cab shut him up though.

He drove me to the boardwalk near where I fought Lung. I paid the last of my fare and left to collect some of the weapons.

Arriving at the scene again I spread my bugs out discreetly. Armsmaster was long gone, as were Lung and the rest of the downed gangbangers. Police tape cordoned off the area and there were a few guys in full body sterile suits taking pictures of the scene. It looked like the police were investigating the mess I'd made. Luckily they weren't on the roof, nor the opposite side where a lot of the weapons had fallen. I pinged the forensic team cataloging the scene, and the beat cops watching over them. My bugs were set to task dropping the loot off the building to the opposite side. With that started, I called Tattletale.

"Hello?" she answered on the first ring.

"Tattletale?" I responded.

"So is this the mighty Monarch?" I could hear the smirk all the way through the phone.

"Speaking. You mentioned directions. I'm back at where the fight was. You wouldn't be far from here right?"

"No not far at all. So if you needed a place to stay, why didn't you ask earlier?" she asked. I never expected her to just let me waltz into their place without the once or twice over.

"Got home to find my dad waiting up for me. He didn't see me, but I figured it was better to tell him I was at a friends than to be coming in at two in the morning. I should be good to go home tomorrow." Not a single lie in there.

"And you reach out to us instead of your other friends?"

"I don't have any friends," I deadpanned. Not yet at least. But there was hope I might make some soon.

She was a little slower responding to that.

"And you think you'll be safer staying with us than a hotel?"

"You do owe me a favor," I retorted. "Besides you seemed like decent criminals. Well I didn't talk to Bitch, but Grue seemed rather welcoming."

"Yeah he can be. So… would you be a decent criminal too then?" I could hear the smile again.

"I'm not planning on stabbing you in the back if thats what your asking. I'm honestly just looking for a place where I'm not going to get mugged or attacked by a couple of gangbangers. So are you ok with me staying with you all, or should I find somewhere else?" I finished.

"Alright you can stay here. I should warn you though that Bitch isn't too welcoming to guests."

"I can handle Bitch if she gets rowdy."

"Like you handled Lung?"

"You told Grue I was holding back… I can pull my punches if I need too. Remember how he wasn't dead? I promise I wont be killing Bitch or her dogs if she gets out of hand."

"You could be lying. Maybe you're just trying to get us with our guard down so you can take us out nice and easy" she countered. Knowing her I could her the smugness and superiority in her statement. She knew from her powers that I wasn't going to do so. She was just nettling me. Or maybe she was just having that hard a time getting a read on me.

I turned to look directly into her eyes when I answered. She was waiting across the street inside another abandoned building. It was hard to see through the glass, at least from my side. Having bugs on her made it a moot point though.

"Once you see me stop pulling my punches, once you see me really cut loose, you'll realize I don't need you to let your guard down to take you out… But in the interest of being friendly, I promise I won't mess with any of you tonight. So are we copacetic? Or do you feel the need to sit me down for a full interrogation?" I finished with a smirk.

Tattletale hung up the phone, opened the door, and walked out.

"I think we can save the twenty questions till morning. But I am curious. You don't seem all that worried that we won't do something bad to you…" She let the statement linger.

"Are the Undersiders really the kind of villains that would do something like that?"

I knew her and the rest of the Undersiders well enough to know they weren't. Well except for Bitch. The couch wouldn't be safe for me to sleep on tonight. Not unless she was up when we got to the loft. If she was, she would attack me then. Thereafter she wouldn't mess with me.

"Na, we wouldn't do more than pickpocket you while you slept. Not that any of us would," she added hastily, "its just, we are more down for making money, than hurting anyone. So you should be alright on the couch tonight."

She tilted her head at my frowning behind my mask.

"Too good for a couch?" she asked.

"To cautious. Will the dogs be a problem in the morning?"

"You don't like dogs? Um, they shouldn't be a problem. You're not allergic. Oh! No they don't always stay that big or scary. Thats just when Bitch uses her powers on them. Bitch?"

She was using her powers on me hard. Making statements and gauging my reactions. I must have twitched at Bitch.

"Think we can walk and talk? It's been a long day and I'd really like to get some sleep."

"Sure, sorry. Most of us don't really have day jobs, so being up this late on a Sunday night isn't a problem for us," she replied trying to get read on me. "Right, well follow me then."

She put action to words and turned to head off towards the loft.

"So whats your bone with Lung?" She asked, continuing to pry.

"Don't really have one. He is a decent criminal once you get past the part where he is trying to kill you."

"Your joking?" she asked giving me a sidelong glance.

"You tell me."

"You'd have to be joking. You're not past the part where he is trying to kill you. And after last night you're probably at the top of his kill list."

"Am I? I know he didn't see me. Nor did any of his gangbangers. If he is after anyone, it'd be the Undersiders. Bitch and her dogs are hard to miss. But a master like me, I can hide and let my bugs do the work."

"Well then lucky for us he is in jail. Thanks to you?"

"And my bugs."

"Yeah and your bugs," She finished.

We kept walking, but she kept to sneaking glances when my head was turned. I could tell she was annoyed. She might not have a great read on me just yet, but I knew all her tells by now. I could tell that whatever her powers were telling her, were not things she was liking. Not because she was necessarily getting wrong information, but whatever information she was getting had to seem contradictory.

"Do you have something you want to ask me?" I broke the silence with.

"What did you need to do before Armsmaster got there?"

"A lot, are we close yet? I am rather tired."

"So you don't want me knowing what you were up to?" she said with a Vulpine grin spreading.

"And not knowing what I was up to seems to really be annoying you isn't it? That's your power then isn't it Tattletale. You figure out peoples secrets. So what secrets am I keeping that you can't seem to figure out?"

She gave me a very dirty look before answering.

"What makes you think I haven't figured out your secrets already?"

"If you knew any of my secrets, you'd be asking how you could help instead of continuing to pry." I retorted. She gave pause at that and looked me over toe to tip.

"So were I to ask how to help?" her question dripping with suspicion and a little bit of trepidation.

"I'd tell you to stop prying, and let me tell you my secrets on my own time."

"Well thats no fun, and how long is that going to take?" She mock pouted.

"The more you pry, the longer it will take," I scolded light heartedly. I was faking humor a bit. Even faked though she should get that I wasn't too upset for her being curious. I did want her to stop digging though. I couldn't trust her with any of my secrets just yet.

"Can't you tell me anything yet? Just one little secret and I promise I'll leave you be. For a bit." She whined a little.

"Sure, one little secret can't hurt right? So here it is." I paused for dramatic effect. "I made more money last night than the Undersiders have made in their entire career." I paused again to let her powers gauge the truth of that statement. "Will that satisfy you?"

She gave me a long look before asking. "You took on the ABB didn't you. Robbed one of their drug houses?"

"Right in one. You are pretty smart aren't you." I winked at her. I realized she might not have seen the wink behind the mask, then realized her powers should have picked up on it regardless.

"So how much did you take?"

"Now now, I told you one little secret. Don't go prying for more just yet."

"Now you're just teasing me."

"Maybe. But I can't make your job too easy now can I."

"You don't have to make it harder though. Anyway this is us," she finished indicating the red brick factory before us. The massive sliding metal door was still locked shut by a coil of chain. Both were rusted to point of being unusable. The former 'Redmond Welding' building stretched a good half a block and the double story ground floor was still filled with cobwebs, indicating its disuse.

"Its big. Do you ever make use of the ground floor?"

"You already know we don't," she said giving me an odd look. "How?"

"I can feel the bugs crawling through the space. I have the facility mapped out already. The spiders have webs spanning large areas on the ground floor. If you were using the space, they wouldn't be so well established."

She let out a long whistle. "Damn you can scout a whole warehouse without even having to walk in. Thats how you knew where I was when we were on the phone before, and how you knew your dad was up. And that's all through your bugs? Thats a lot more impressive than just saying anthropodokinesis. So what else can you do with them?"

"I'll tell you in the morning. Can we go in?"

"Sure. It's through here," she said as she slid open the side door. "Do you want to lead?" she asked giving me a pointed look.

"After you," I replied, not willing to out myself as too familiar with their place.

She led on up the stairs as we entered. I scanned ahead and found Bitch asleep in her room, the dogs in theirs, and Alec in his. Searching for Brian left me both disappointed and relieved when I couldn't find him. The moment I would see him without my mask on, Tattletale would know that secret. Probably best to delay that reveal for later.

As we emerged at the top of the stairs, I looked out at the familiar room. The red brick walls reached up to the gray metal girders with the exposed metal roof above. The living room we entered into had the two couches facing the massive TV. I remembered sitting with Brian on the side couch watching movies. The mats we had sparred on were up against the back wall, leaving a rather large empty space behind the couches. There were a few shelves missing which bothered me till I remembered they would still be in the storage closet. A quick scan of the room showed there was little space to sleep. I would need to move a few things out before I could lay down comfortably.

As if reading my mind Tattletale answered my unspoken question. "We have a spare room we used for storage. We'd have to move a few things out of there before you'd have space. I can help, but are you sure you wouldn't prefer the couch?"

"Are you going to tell Regent to come out with his mask on when he wakes up? Or warn Grue to keep his face covered when he stops by?"

"Right. Well lets get to it then."

"You don't think Bitch could help us out?"

Tattletale just looked at me.

I took that as a no and started to the storage room. We only cleared out enough to give me enough space to get the air mattress in. Tattletale was blissfully quiet when we were working. When the air mattress finally had room, she broke the silence.

"So, all set there. You did bring up a good point about the masks earlier. Would you mind checking in the morning to make sure we are covered before you come out? You'd probably want to keep your costume and mask on too just to be safe."

"I'll be sure to do so. Thank you again for letting me crash."

"No problem. Right well I'll let you get some sleep. Oh, did you want anything to sleep in? I can't imagine that armor plating is all that comfortable."

"Oh I sleep naked," I tried to deadpan.

"Liar. I'll get you a loose top and some bottoms. Stay put."

I could feel her walk into her room and rummage through her dresser. The few bugs I had discreetly placed on her and everyone else in the loft gave me a perfect tactical map of the area. My spiders had run webbs at all the entrances, windows, and at each of the doors to the rooms. They weren't the black widows lines. These were just to let me know if someone passed through an area when I was asleep. I left out Tattletale's room for the moment. I would wait till she was back in it before I went to sleep.

"Here you go," she said passing me the clothes she had found. "They will be big on you, but you should be fine for just sleeping. Good night."

"See you in the morning," I finished.

I waited as she walked out the door. My bugs followed her back to her room. I felt her pick up her phone. She wasn't talking, nor texting, just holding it and looking at it. After a minute she put it down and started changing. I decided to do the same, while tagging her door and mine. I lay down on the air mattress in my borrowed clothes. I was happy to finally get some sleep. Today had been a long day. Tomorrow should be much shorter. I checked once more on the now sleeping Undersiders. Tattletale had left the phone where it lay and had gotten into bed. I closed my eyes.

Darkness claimed me.


	8. Hemolymph 1-8

1.08 Hemolymph

I awoke to a pounding on the door, rolled out from under the sheets, grabbed my gun in my right hand and my knife in my left. I reached out with my bugs searching the doors first. Mine hadn't been opened, but the rest had broken webs. People had traveled to the bathrooms and to the kitchen. The fridge had been opened, but not the freezer. The entrance had also been opened and the path up the stairs had been traveled. When, I had no idea.

"Hey Monarch! You awake?"

"Nope," I replied, recognizing the voice as Tattletales. I relaxed a little when I finally got a few bugs to tag her with more coming upstairs to discreetly search the rest of the rooms.

"Liar. Anyway get dressed. We are all outside, so come out when you're ready."

My bugs had landed on another three people and three dogs. I could tell almost immediately who was who and lowered the gun in my right hand. Call me paranoid, but the Undersiders weren't my allies just yet.

"None of you are wearing masks," I called out as soon as I realized.

"Yeah thats ok, we trust you're not going to out us. We talked about it already and when you're dressed, we have a proposition for you."

I had hoped for this, but it still came as a bit of a surprise. I check them a bit more thoroughly and none had any weapons handy. There weren't any other persons on the premises, nor any of significance in the surrounding block. I doubted Tattletale had a full sense of my range just yet. When she called she was just across the street, and I could feel all the way to the next street before things got hazy. If Coil was planning an ambush, he wouldn't have known to stage them that far out. Unless he used his powers. He could have tried a few times waking me earlier with his goons staged closer, then dropped that reality when I caught on. Rinse and repeat till he figured out my range. Well, range would only be a factor for so long, and mine was constantly expanding. I would worry about Coil latter though. I had other more immediate priorities.

I set my bugs in motion as I checked myself and my gear. I brought out my pepper spray and baton, sheathing my knife and holstering my gun. My pepper spray, I gave a shake to find it full. There after, I stashed them back under my back plate, using a weak web with a spider I had brought up from downstairs, to secure the two items in place. Should I tug on them, they would break free, but leaving them alone, gravity wouldn't drag them out.

Certain of my weapons I checked my mask before stepping out. The rooms opened into a hall with the kitchen and bathrooms at one end and the living room with gathered Undersiders on the other. Not only were they not wearing their masks, but none were even in costume. Regent was even in sweats and a v-neck t-shirt. I remembered that was what he slept in. Grue and Tattletale were at least dressed with an interest in being presentable. Grue was actually looking very good. He had on a fashionable and very tight turtleneck, his boots were freshly polished, and his jeans were clean and form fitting. I'd have to remember to keep Cozen far away from him, if she made her way here this time around.

"Hey Monarch! Don't look so shocked to see us," Tattletale joked shaking me from my musings. She gave me a knowing smile. I smirked back not too worried if she was picking up on my feelings for Grue. She had tried shipping us the first time around. I might need her help getting his head on straight. Luckily I wouldn't need as much of a nudge.

"Sorry, I guess I wasn't expecting to wake up to a room full of villains today," I quipped. Bitch just glared at me as her dogs growled at my voice. She was wearing a torn up shirt, army boots, and a plaid skirt. I hoped she had something on underneath, for her sake at least.

I had my bugs ready for whatever happened next. Tattletale just jumped right into it. "So you remember me as Tattletale, but out of costume, you can call me Lisa."

"I'm Grue in costume, but when I'm not wearing a mask, you should just call me Brian."

"I think you should always call me Regent," Alec started, but a kick from Brian had him finishing. "Ow! Fine, when I'm not wearing my crown, I'm Alec."

I looked at Bitch, making and holding eye contact. She didn't offer her name. A cough from Brian still didn't get her to budge.

I knew what was coming even before she said anything, and I was ready for it.

"Hurt!" she shouted.

As the dogs charged, I crossed my arms and leaned back against the wall nonchalantly, putting my foot up against the wall. I was the epitome of disinterested as the dogs charged at me. Several things happened then, some I had planned for, others not so much. The problem was I had sorely miscalculated the strength of the dogs.

Everyone but me and Bitch cried out in shock and alarm. Not planned, but expected. The three dogs made it four strides before they were pulled back hard. Planned. They pulled harder against the weight tied to their collars and gained some ground. Planned. Bitch found her head and shoulders the only part of her left on the couch. Not quite how I planned, but it still was the result I wanted. Her legs were held high in the air by the spider silk running up to the rafters and back down to the dog collars. Their forward momentum and weight had been enough to lift her lower half up off the ground, but not enough to have her fully suspended from the ceiling.

I was really disappointed in that. It would have been much more dramatic to have had her clear the couch. I had thought the dogs would be stronger. If they had been juiced, Bitch would have made it three feet off the ground before the secondary strings tied to the support columns pulled taught. As it stood though, I found out that she didn't wear any underwear under her skirt. She also didn't shave anything. Not that I had expected Bitch to, but when you shave regularly, you sometimes forget how harry we girls really are.

"Call off your dogs Bitch and I'll let you down," I stated in the most apathetic voice I could manage.

"Fuck you! Let me down or I'll tear your head off!"

"I don't see how you can manage that with your ass in the air. More like if I let you down you'll try and tear my head off."

"Bitch call off your dogs now! We invited her here to stay and we talked about our next move. This isn't it damn it!" Brian shouted out, trying to be heard over the dogs.

Alec was still sitting on the couch watching in fascination. Lisa to was still on the couch, though she was more intrigued by me than Bitch's hairy legs in the air.

"No! You talked, I said I didn't want her here and you didn't listen!"

"Bitch, call of your dogs. You sick them on me, and they will get hurt," I said, taking out the pepper spray and baton. I didn't want to do any permanent damage and the pepper spray would be the most effective weapon against these dogs. The baton would be for Bitch.

"Are you threatening MY DOGS!"

I could see her legs lifting higher in the air and took that as my cue. The barking, snarling and snapping quickly turned to whimpering, hacking, and rolling on the ground with a quick spray across their noses. I was charging Bitch before she could get her bearings, or even her legs all the way down on the ground, I brought my baton down against the side of her head with a sharp whack. I was careful to avoid her temple or ear. I wanted this to hurt, but not cause permanent damage. I hit her again and again and again in rapid strikes. I hit her hands as she raised them against the blows, batting them out of the way.

"Enough!" Brian shouted, covering us both in darkness.

I collapsed my baton and stepped back from Bitch. She raised her fingers to her mouth and tried a weak whistle. It was a moot point, as the dogs had no fight in them, with their eyes and noses burning. As Brian dropped the darkness, I walked past the dogs, back to the wall I had started at.

In the confusion, a team of my bugs had opened the fridge, and dragged a carton of milk down the hall. Bugs were covering the carton to further disguise it, until I stooped to pick the milk up. To the Undersiders, it would look like the milk materialized from my bugs. In reality it took a lot of concentration to organize them.

Lifting the carton, I made my way over to the dogs. Bitch perked up and made a noise like a whimper.

"The dogs are hurting. You want them to get better, then I need to pour milk in their eyes and nose. You can tell them to sit still while I do it or come over here and help. Your choice, but I should warn you, if you try anything, anything at all, I'll make sure you regret it."

I looked at the group who all seemed lost for words. Bitch for her part made to get up. When I undid the web on the dogs collars, Bitch's lower half dropped to the floor, where she got up quietly and came over. She took the milk from me without a glance and started tending to her dogs. Brian was still a little dumbfounded by the whole incident. Alec just looked confused. Lisa was wearing her predatory grin.

"And that was Bitch I take it? Do you call her anything out of costume?"

"Rachel," Lisa answered, having recovered first.

"About what just happened," Brian started before I waved him off.

"Forget it, what's done is done, and I doubt Rachel will be attacking me again any time soon, will you Rachel?" I asked looking over to her.

She was tending to Brutus, having calmed the other two dogs enough to focus on the one. She just glared at me, but again broke eye contact before long. I took that as a no.

"So you all gathered here just to introduce yourselves than? Brian?"

"Uh no, not just to say hi," he started a little awkwardly. "We also wanted to say thanks, and… Lisa,"

She approached me with a smile on her face and a lightness to her gait that contrasted heavily with the beating Rachel had just received.

"I said we owed you one, and before you go on saying we are even for letting you crash here, We want you to have this too," she finished handing me a plastic lunchbox with Alexandria on the cover. It reminded me that I still hadn't heard from Cauldron. I'd have to check my phone when I had a moment alone. I opened the box and saw the eight stacks of bills marked $250.

"Two grand," Lisa and I said simultaneously. She looked at me funny, but kept talking. "No strings attached. It's a token of thanks for dealing with Lung, and a bit of an apology for just now. We also wanted to ask you something else," she paused, looking back at Brian, who merely nodded. "You have two choices, you can take that as a gift. A thank you for saving our ass from Lung last night. And maybe a bit of incentive to count us among your friends when you're out in costume and doing dastardly deeds."

Her grin faltered, but she elaborated, "Between territory disputes, differences in ideology, general power struggles and egos, there's a rare few people in the local cape community who won't attack us on sight."

"Noted. And the real reason you all came out unmasked to greet me this morning?" I asked smirking a bit as I did.

Lisa had a wide grin spread across her face at that. Before I could comment again Brian replied, "You can take this as your first installment in the monthly allowance you're entitled to as a member of the Undersiders, as one of us."

I opened the lunch box again and looked at the money. After a second I closed the lid and placed it back on the table.

"Two thousand a month," I said.

"No, that's just what the boss pays us, to stick together and stay active. We make, uh, considerably more than that," Brian mused.

Alec chuckled to himself swirling his coke, laughing at the insinuation. Lisa for her part started frowning.

"Thanks," I said. "You guys seem nice," I continued to hopeful looks, "but my answer is no."

The look of disappointment on Brian's face hurt enough I almost changed my answer right then. Lisa though, was having none of it.

"The moneys not good enough for you?" She asked a little angry. Maybe she knew what I was about to do. If so I could see why she was annoyed.

"I told you how much I made on my last job didn't I? You think 24k a year is going to be enough to get me to settle down and join a team? I get you guys may not be able to afford me, but if this boss of yours is willing to shell out cash to get a team of capes together, he should be paying a lot more for your services."

"How much," Lisa asked without pause, "starting bonus and year pay. How much is enough for you?"

"Half a million upfront, than ten thousand a month to stick with the team. Plus I'd need to meet your boss, face to face. I won't be working for some anonymous backer, not if he gets to know who I am and where I sleep. Sorry, but the cape world is dangerous enough," I clarified, "I want to know if shit goes sideways, he can't sell us out without some fear of revenge."

They all exchanged glances. Lisa took out her phone and started texting furiously. I let her get her message out and waited for the response. She must not have been happy with it cause she went right back to texting again.

"So who is your boss?" I asked as Lisa continued with her message.

"We don't really know," Brian stated.

"Seriously you have no idea who you work for, who pays your wages, or why he gives you the jobs he does? He sets you up as his little team of scapegoats and you don't bother to ask who or why?"

"The boss has been good to us in the past. We do a job we get paid. For me, it's more than that. I have some personal issues he is helping me with. If he wanted to screw with me he could, but he has always come through for all of us," Brian said a bit defensively.

"How much did you make on the last job," Lisa asked me, looking up from her phone.

I smiled and replied, "A lot."

She went back to texting again.

"Three hundred thousand up front and four thousand a month," she stated with no preamble and a very direct look.

"Six thousand a month and four hundred fifty thousand up front."

"Five thousand a month and three hundred and fifty thousand up front. Final offer."

"I'll accept if the rest of the team gets the same bump in monthly allowance." That got some shocked faces across the room. I wanted to be part of the team, but if I would be taking the same risks, yet making two to three times as much, they wouldn't be very happy with me.

Lisa's smirk was as wide as ever as she texted back furiously. "Done!" she exclaimed when she received a confirming text.

Brian and Alec both let out a cheer and the dogs got to barking at the sudden noise, their eyes and nose having been cleaned out with the milk. Rachel silenced them quickly and scowled in our direction. Lisa gave me an expectant look to which I responded.

"You know me as Monarch in costume," I said before I took off my mask. "But out of costume you can call me Taylor," I finished with a smile at Brian, who was wearing that boyish grin I had loved so much. Alec just raised an eyebrow, while Lisa flitted to my side and gave me a half hug and a wink.

"So now that you're a member of the team, you want to tell me that secret of yours?" she asked with an even bigger grin.

I just looked at her, try to keep the grin on my face when I'd rather be scowling. Could I tell her that I planned on killing her boss when it was convenient, or that they had a month to prepare for Leviathan and the Slaughterhouse 9?

"Nope, so now that we have all met each other, what now?"

"Well since you did get us a raise, we could all help get you set up with a room here. I helped clean out some space last night, but we should get you a proper room for all those nights you spend running away from home."

A gave her a sidelong glance and she just smirked back at me.

"Lisa mentioned you had trouble with your parents?" Brian asked.

"It's just my dad, but no, no trouble. I just didn't expect him to be up waiting last night. He even called the cops to look for me."

"What?!" Lisa, Brian, and Alec all shouted at once.

"They told him I hadn't been gone long enough to warrant a missing persons report."

"How do you know he called the cops if you didn't go home last night?" Alec asked.

"I went home, found my dad waiting up for me, and didn't go in the house, but called him instead." I responded as I walked towards the room I had come out of this morning. Looking at it in the light I realized we had made most of the progress last night. There were a few shelves and a couple empty crates, but that was about it.

"Hu, I guess you guys did most of the work last night," Brian said putting my thoughts into words. "Just you and Lisa?"

"Yeah she said it was best not to wake Rachel and her dogs, and that Alec would be dead to the world," I partially lied. I hadn't even considered having Alec help.

"Right well lets get the rest of it cleaned out then. Rachel you wanna help out here?"

Rachel looked up right at me. I locked gazes with her again and made sure not to look away. Again she broke eye contact first and moved to help. The dogs growled as she got near, but she shushed them again, and they stayed silent.

"So how did you do that to Rachel?" Grue asked as he lifted a box a junk and carried it out.

"Trade secret," I replied.

"Spider webs that she tied from the dogs collars to Rachel," Lisa corrected with a bit of a smile.

"Spider webs can do that? Wait how did you get them tied up? You came out of the room and just stayed on the wall," Alec asked.

"I had my spiders run lines from the dogs, up over the rafters, then back down again to Rachel. I left some slack so they could get a running start. She was supposed to be lifted up off the ground, but the dogs were a little weak, and she was a little heavy," I responded as Rachel glared at me. Maybe I shouldn't have called her dogs weak. I doubt she cared about the heavy comment.

"I didn't think spider webs were all that strong. And how did you get the webs up over the rafters?"

"I used flies and black widows. The flies carried them up while they were spinning the web. You might have noticed the flies, but few people bother with them. The black widow lines are actually really strong, with a tensile strength about that of steel,"

"Ha very funny. This is the part where you say you used some other kind of spider and we all laugh at the thought about black widow spiders crawling around right under our noses."

I turned to him and let five of said spiders dangle from my fingertips. "Don't worry," I said to him, "I have them under my complete control. They don't breath unless I tell them to, so it's not likely they are going to bite you."

Regent and Lisa paled a bit at that.

"Damn and you just pull them out of thin air?" Brian asked.

"I found a bunch downstairs. I had them come up to me last night while you were sleeping."

"Lisa you sure you want to set a room up for her here? Can't we just put her downstairs with the rest of the spiders. I don't think I like the idea of black widows crawling over me when I sleep."

"They won't be crawling over you when you sleep," I corrected.

"What about when you're sleeping? You gonna tell them not to bite me?"

"Yep."

"Real funny."

"She's not joking… Can you really control them when you sleep?" Lisa asked wide eyed.

"The control isn't as fine. It more instinctual commands right now, but I'm working on improving that. I'd like to get them to the point where I can set them to work on simple tasks and leave them to it overnight, but my powers aren't there just yet though."

Brian let out a long whistle. "Damn that's cool. So what kind of simple tasks would you have them do then? Patrol? Rob a bank?"

I smiled at the bank joke. "Right now I can set them up to protect or defend me when I sleep. They aren't too good with threat assessment, so if I told them to protect me, they would attack anyone or anything that came too close. I'd like to get them to be a bit more productive when I sleep, but that will take some practice still."

"Productive how?" Lisa asked with a very determined look. I just smiled at her.

"Thats what you make your costume out of isn't it? Spider silk? Black widow spider silk? And the armor plating? How did you make that?"

Damn her power, I thought I could keep that a secret for a bit. Well let her go digging for those facts instead of something more dangerous. Really though, her knowing about my costume meant that Coil would know about my costume. If he knew I could take a bullet and still stay standing, he might go for the bigger guns, like his lasers or grenades. It still didn't make sense to me why he never used them. Or why he didn't set the room up to burn faster. Or use acid. Was he really that arrogant that he wanted to be the one to pull the trigger? Most villains would let their lackeys take care of it from a safe distance. GRanted I did the same thing to him.

"Why don't you tell me if you're so smart, after all you seem to know everything about me already."

"Not everything," she replied with a vulpine grin. "You still have a few secrets, but I'll find them out soon enough."

"Dzzn't. Fzzr zzzzur zake." I whispered through my bugs right by her ears. It was the first time I had tried talking through them and the vowels were hard to get out. She blanched a bit. Hopefully she would get the message. The others hadn't heard the bugs and so hadn't reacted to anything differently, but for Lisa and I, the room just got a lot colder.

"Brian can you and Rachel get this shelf out? I don't think Lisa, Alec or I could manage," I said.

"Hey!" Alec exclaimed.

"Do you want to move the big heavy bookcase?" I asked.

"No," he groused

"Then don't complain," I retorted.

"Dork."

He was not starting that bit again was he?

"So you can control bugs?" Brian asked, trying to maneuver the bookcase as he did.

"Anything with a simple enough mind, all insects, simple crustaceans like crabs. I thought at first I could affect anything with an exoskeleton, but I can control worms and those don't have a shell to speak of."

"What about really big bugs? Is it a size thing?" Lisa asked.

I thought back to Atlas. Nope definitely not a size thing. He had been massive, large enough to carry me and Glory Girl.

"There aren't that many bugs that are that big."

"How many can you control at once?"

"I haven't hit an upper limit. I don't really think I have one. The only limitations I've found have been gathering bugs. Right now I can feel several million in this block alone, with significantly more beyond."

"Damn so how many have you controlled at once?" Regent asked.

I had to think for a second.

"6,363,450,982,345."

The all just stared at me.

"It's not as much as you might think. I could have a swarm of several thousand bugs that would be no bigger than me. To get up to a trillion, it does take a while, and I'd have to cover a good amount of ground, as there aren't that many bugs in an area that can get to me all that quickly."

"Six trillion is a huge number. And you can still maintain the same kind of control with that many?" Regent asked, clearly flabbergasted.

"Are you saying I should have asked for more money from the boss?"

"Hey you got more than any of us did when we first started, but then again you made a bigger impression on the boss too. I mean, soloing Lung is gonna get you major points with the rest of the Villains. Almost every major team of capes here has gone up against him and lost. Some worse than others," Brian gushed as he got the last of the shelves out with Rachel. There was little left in the room to move out. The air mattress had deflated by now too.

"Thanks for helping get the room cleaned out for me. Does your boss help furnish the place or is that on you guys?"

"Can't you afford a bed with all that money?" Alec quipped.

"If I don't have to pay for it, I won't," I retorted.

"Awfully cheap of you, well if you can get more money out of the boss, then more power to you. He does help out with gear sometimes, like if you need any odds and ends you wouldn't be able to get without drawing suspicion. You saw Lisa texting the boss earlier. She is the only one of us who can get a hold of him, so ask her and she will pass it on," Brian supplied.

"I have a list,"

"I'm sure you do," Brian chuckled.

"So what about you guys? I told you about my abilities, what about yours?"

"Why don't you tell us what you think we can do and we tell you if you're right," Lisa interposed with that vulpine smile again.

"Well Tattletale here seems to know everybody's secrets. You can take a little bit of information and you power fills in the rest. Grue generates darkness that blinds and muddles sounds, but he can still see and hear through it. Regent is a body snatcher, messing with people's nervous systems to make them pull or not pull a trigger, drop a grenade, or hit a self destruct button. Bitch can augment the dogs to add muscle and bone, making her Hellhounds from normal dogs. How did I do?"

"Damn, how'd you know that? Not all of that is up on the parahumans wiki or forums,"

"I checked the wiki and the newspapers which gave me a start. I also saw you all in action too. Talking with Lisa, I got a good idea of what she can do and what she can't. Rachel, well I saw you guys ride in on three massive creatures, and then this morning, I maced three dogs she sent to attack me. Not much of a jump to figure that one out."

"What about me? I didn't do much at the fight when we got there. How'd you know what I could do?" Alec asked.

He stumped me there for a second, as I really shouldn't know how I knew. A partial lie could work. It would be needed to get Lisa focused on the lie, rather than the truth.

"I met a girl name Cherie, she told me a bit about you," I replied. I could see him tensing at the mention of his sister and the realization that I knew enough to damn him.

"How long were you with her?" he asked.

"Long enough for her to run away in fear for her life. Last I heard she joined the Slaughterhouse 9. I guess she thinks she is safe with them. Silly her then, I doubt she will last long either way. Oh, but don't worry, we are teammates now, and both you and your secrets are safe with me," I finished with a knowing smile.

He shrugged it as if it was nothing. Maybe to him it wasn't, I hadn't really known Alec very well.

"You just keep on impressing me. Well you had the gist of it. My powers also cut off radio transmissions and dampen radiation, or at least that's what Lisa's power tells her anyway. Not that we have come up against anyone that the last two bits would be useful against, but hey." Brian replied.

"Behemoth," I said, and the room got quiet real quick. "The radiation dampening would save a lot of lives against Behemoth. It could also keep cities from being uninhabitable after. Just a thought," I said.

"Yeah I guess it could," Brian said with a bit of hesitation. It was clear he wasn't too comfortable with the idea of fighting Behemoth. Understandable really. Most people wouldn't be comfortable going up against an Endbringer, especially the one known as the cape killer.

"Already planning on pitting us against Endbringers?" Lisa asked.

"Sure, why not. Think your power could beat the Simurgh?" Sadly I knew it couldn't. Lisa had figured out a lot about the Endbringers, but that didn't mean she could decipher the mind of the Simurgh.

"Can we not talk about this shit right now? Man you guys are so damn heavy with this talk of Endbringers," Alec blurted out.

"Yeah so what do you want to talk about instead, then Alec?" Brian asked, clearly relieved to be off the subject.

"I don't want to talk about anything, I just want to relax and watch some TV. What do you say? Can we put on a movie that doesn't suck?"

"Godzilla?" I asked.

"Dork I said a movie that doesn't suck and hey, that's about an Endbringer. I thought we were gonna drop that shit?"

"I'll drop it, but I also have to leave now too. I have to see my dad and deal with that mess today. Lisa do you think I could borrow some clothes to go home in?"

"Sure, why don't you come into my room and you can pick something out."

"Want me to watch?"

"NO!" Brian, Lisa, and I all shouted at once, which of course got the dogs barking, and Rachel glaring.

"Hey I was just offering to help. No need to yell," he snickered as Lisa and I made for her room.

She shut and locked the door before rounding on me with a level glare, to which I just smiled back.

"You look like you want to ask me something."

"You want to tell me what the hell that was?"

"Not really no. Think I can get a pair of jeans and a hoodie?"

"Seriously?! And here I was thinking you were gonna tell me what the hell is going on and you actually just want to borrow clothes!"

"I can't take a bus home in sweats. People would notice that. I doubt it would blow my cover, but if the wrong person notices, then I could be in trouble."

"No, I don't buy that, you had to want to tell me something, my powers are screaming that you have some big secret you want to tell me. So what is it?"

"Sorry, but no. I might want to tell you something, but nothing I say to you is going to stay private. I can't trust that you aren't going to run off and tell your boss everything that I say."

"No, its more than that, there is some other reason you aren't telling me. Why?'

"When you figure it out, keep it to yourself. Don't speak of it, don't write it down, and whatever you do, don't tell your boss about it. Our lives depend on that secret and our lives get a lot shorter when you involve him."

"You mean…"

"Yep."

"But?"

"I can see the gun he has to your head from here. You want my help, you keep my secrets, and don't go digging for anymore. I'm not looking to start a fight with you, but lay off the twenty questions in front of the rest of the team. Stop pushing my buttons, and you'll find yourself much better off in the long run."

"So I just let you run with whatever you are plotting and hope it turns out for the best?"

"No, you help me with my plotting and it will turn out best for you, or at least better than if you don't help, and a lot better than if you tried to get in my way."

"That's no fun."

"Maybe, maybe not. It might be the most fun you've had in a while. So then, are you in or out?"

She paused for a while to consider. I remained silent, letting her run with her powers for a time. I couldn't force her to make this decision. She would have to come to it on her own with the prodding I had already done.

After what felt like an eternity, she responded.

"What do you need me to do then?"

"You can start by getting me a pair of jeans and a hoodie," I told her, smirking a bit.

She stuck out her tongue, but turned to get the jeans.

Turning back she handed them to me.

"Next you're gonna call your boss. Here is what you need to tell him."


	9. Interlude 1-I

Interlude 1

A man sat in a rather spartan room, a simple desk with a computer was accompanied by a simple chair. Here the man sat, staring at the screen, reading lines of text. Beside his mouse lay three phones and a cup of coffee. An alert pinged on his screen to indicate his visitor had arrived. The man had another matter he needed to attend to, and sooner rather than later. The appointment, though had been scheduled, and the man he was to meet was not someone would would stand to be left waiting. Take the appointment, or make a call? The man chose both.

"Report."

"Hey boss, so Monarch is on board and making cozy at our place."

"Noted. Her name?"

"Taylor Hebert, she is local, 15 years old. She goes to Winslow High. She's a loner, no friends, but lots of enemies. She was bullied pretty bad, to the point where she triggered at school. She is kinda infamous there. There was a whole locker incident that left some pretty bad mental scarring."

"Is she unstable?"

"No… She is cold. Cruel almost. I'd say she is utterly ruthless. I get the feeling she has killed before, but doesn't seem too bothered by it."

"And is this killing going to draw unwanted attention to the Undersiders?"

"No more than having Bitch on the team. When she told us her cape name, that was the first time she had used it. She might have been running around without one before, but that should mean nobody knows who she is. I'm not getting the sense she thinks it's going to be an issue."

"Is she smart enough to know if it would be an issue, or is she simply ignorant of the way the world works?"

"I found out why she went after Lung."

"While I am interested to know why, you aren't answering my question."

"Ok, so you are a villain making your debut. Most villains start small, robbing cause they need to, or going after someone for revenge. Monarch could have gone after the girls that bullied her, but she didn't. Hell, she doesn't even mess with them, because she isn't gonna take the chance any of it could lead to her being outed as a cape. So what does she do instead; Instead she finds the biggest, baddest guy in town and fucks him up. First she takes from him, robs his drug house right under his nose, with both Lung and Oni Lee there for that. Then she tracks Lung down and takes him out in front of twenty of his goons. Then she wipes the floor with them too, leaving a few to take the word back how badass she is. She does this all on the first and second night out as a cape."

"So she has power, but you're not showing evidence she has an understanding of the cape world."

"I'm getting there boss, now how many teams of capes have gone up against Lung, and won? As far as I know, best anyone has managed, has been forcing him to run. But she curb stomps him and his gang when they were preparing to go to war? Not taking them out in their sleep, or one by one, but all at once, when they were armed to the teeth and ready for a fight. She said she walked right up to Lung, looked him in the eyes, and knocked his ass out."

"Clearly she has delusions of grandeur."

"Except she pulled it off. Now when anyone talks about her, the first rumor to go around is that story. It makes her scary enough that people don't want to mess with her. I can't remember exactly how she phrased it, but the gist is, she wants to be scary enough that other capes would rather avoid a fight with her if they could. Basically, she stole the scary of Lung's reputation and made it her own."

"Indeed. And is this your explanation of the situation or hers?"

"Hers, I asked her point blank why she went up against Lung and that's what she told me."

"Interesting."

"Yeah…"

"Tell me more of her powers."

"Ok, so she controls bugs, but it's a lot more badass than it sounds. She has no upper limit, like the only limit she has, is range and the bugs in that range. And she has amazing control, master 8 at least. She can direct a swarm as decoys, and sneak a black widow up a person's leg to bite them on a major artery or several major arteries."

"A master 6 seems more appropriate given the power level you are describing to me. You convinced me to pay out a considerable sum of money, and I do expect her to earn back my investments, as I do all my hires…" He left the implied threat hanging in the air."

"Boss she made about that her first night out as a cape. You wanted her on the team, well, thats what it took to get her. She did give me a great idea though. We went after the casino last time and made a decent haul, but most of these civi places have rules to keep cash on hand low. The other villains don't. They can't use banks, and most of their business is done with cash. We could start hitting a lot of these villains like Monarch did and come away with huge scores. Now she just took the cash from these guys, but if we had taken the drugs too, our take would be a lot higher."

"Do you have a target in mind?"

"We could hit the same drug house again. My powers are telling me it hasn't been relocated yet, just has security beefed up. We could scout the area and formulate a plan of attack."

"No. She had a good idea, but part of that was leaving the product. If you raid their facility too soon, they will have less of both. We will give them time to rebuild before we strike again. I would like to know how Monarch discovered the drug house, it may be necessary for her to do so again should they relocate."

"Don't know about how she found the drug house, but it's not going anywhere for a bit. Right now they are gonna be focused on springing Lung."

"Yes, a very interesting series of events. You have yet to explain to me how Lung ended up in custody after the fight."

"Right, I mentioned that Armsmaster was on his way when we left Monarch. He's the one who found Lung, and brought him in."

"And what about her? You failed to mention what she did when Armsmaster was enroute."

"Oh um… I don't know. I thought she was going to mess Lung up some more."

"She removed his eyes and cut out his tongue. Just the tip though, but with lacerations to the base. It appeared she was aiming to take the whole tongue out. She also murdered one of his gang members, stabbing him through the heart. Why, would be what I would like to know."

"She killed a guy?! So why suggest that she wasn't going to cross the line and get a kill order on her. Wait, isn't that going to bring a kill order down on us if she joins up?"

"Armsmaster took credit for the fight. I had my people cover up the murder. It's been made to look like an accident precipitated by the fight between Lung and Armsmaster. The other gang members stayed silent when interrogated, and so haven't even mentioned the presence of the first cape or the arrival of yourselves. This should not be a cause for concern, focus on the why."

"Ok what about Lung ears?"

"Nothing of note. Elaborate."

"See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil?"

"You are asking, I want you to tell me why."

"Ok, the thug might have seen something he wasn't supposed to, so she killed him. When she first hit Lung, she was using her bugs to hide her. The thug might have seen what she looked like, maybe in costume, maybe with her mask off when she went to mess with Lung, so she offs him. Lung would have still been down and out. If she took his eyes and tongue it's 'cause she doesn't want him fighting any time soon. She either didn't expect Armsmaster to take him in custody, or doesn't expect him to stay cooped up for long."

"Or she intended to discredit Armsmaster and tarnish his reputation. It would seem Monarch did far more damage than initially described. Toxins were in his bloodstream at such high levels that much of his flesh had become necrotic. His genitals are little more than dead flesh, with his legs also being unusable. Would this have been intentional or incidental?"

A long pause followed.

"Tattletale I am expecting an answer. Intentional or incidental?"

"I thought she was holding back… If she was and still planned this…"

"Answer the question."

"Intentional. She said she wanted to make sure if he got up, he still wouldn't be able to fight. I thought she meant just that night. If his legs are that messed up, then even with his healing, he isn't going to be fighting for a month at least."

"Less. Panacea was called when his heart stopped. He was partially healed to where his own abilities will complete the process in the next week or so."

"I doubt she expected that."

"Doubt is not common for you Tattletale."

"I don't know her well enough to be sure one way or the other. My power is telling me she didn't, but it could be wrong. I'll have to get back to you on that."

"So you will."

"So boss are the rest of us really getting raises?"

Coil hung up the phone and returned to his computer screen. He had a notice he had been ignoring. Accord was waiting to speak with him and had been for some time. The man had left in a rage after ten minutes. Not a problem for a man who could jump between two time lines at his will. He did so now, erasing the conversation with Tattletale and choosing instead, the timeline where he met with Accord.

"Coil," the shorter man addressed the taller one as he walked into the room, "always so prompt when I arrive, your secretary even said you were expecting me. I find the lie to be most flattering."

Coil stood to greet the man as he entered.

"Would you like a seat?"

"Do you even have one to spare? Your facilities are coming along, but are still rather empty. You have only the one chair in this office, are you giving me that one to sit on then? No I didn't think so. We shall stand then."

"So we shall. What brings you to Brockton Bay, Accord? You so rarely leave Boston."

"I am looking for a cape, I believe she is here in your city. It would only be courteous to speak with you first before interfering."

"Indeed, and do you have the name of this cape?"

"She called herself Harbinger. A lie, of course, and one she admitted to. I believe that I have discovered her actual cape's name, or at least the alias she operates under in your city."

"And what is it that you want with her?"

"Revenge."


	10. Mandible 2-1

Mandible 2.1

Walking in the front door, I came face to face with my dad.

"Welcome home, kiddo," he said, with a neutral expression on his face.

Without breaking stride, I walked into hug him. He held me close and kissed the top of my head.

"Sorry for last night, dad. I didn't mean to worry you."

"Taylor, I thought you were more responsible than that. I rarely have to worry about you being out late ever, let alone on a Sunday. I was worried it might have been…"

"The bullies?"

My dad squeezed a little tighter.

"Is it…"

"Better? No," I stated. I had come into this timeline the 9th, the day after the terrible trio covered me in juice and soda in the bathroom. It was definitely not better, but I was working on a solution.

"Taylor, would you like me to talk to your principal?"

"No dad. Thank you, but it wouldn't do any good."

"You don't need to deal with this on your own," he said, breaking the hug and looking at me directly. The loving look on his face almost made me cry. I can't remember the last time I saw him look at me like that. He might have come close when he visited me in jail, but there, he had a wariness to him. By that time, he knew who I was. I was still his daughter, but he had to temper that with the knowledge of me being a supervillain. Because of that, he had never looked at me the same way.

"I don't want to deal with this anymore."

"You shouldn't have too sweetheart. What do you want to do, though?"

"Drop out of school and get my GED," I said, holding my breath for the inevitable explosion.

"Wait, what? Taylor I don't want you to give up on school because of this. Your education is important. You can't just drop out of school."

"Dad."

"What are you thinking, giving up like this?"

"I'm not giving up Dad; I'm just picking my battles."

"Taylor, quitting school isn't picking your battles; it's running away from them."

That struck a nerve. When I said I was picking my battles, I actually meant it. I couldn't, in good conscience, waste time at school when the world needed saving.

"Dad, when I say I want to pick my battles, I mean I don't want to waste time at high school. I'm smart. I can test out now and start taking classes at the community college, from there I can transfer to the university."

"College? Taylor, you're only fifteen. I'm amazed you're even thinking about college as a sophomore, but you need to finish high school first. You can't just skip ahead."

I had already finished high school once, in Chicago. I hadn't graduated the Wards, but that was because my birthday wasn't until June 19th, after school was out. Also the day the Slaughterhouse 9 returned. I didn't want to repeat those classes, if I could. Moreover, I didn't want to waste time with Winslow, and all the issues that came with it. If I was going to repeat two years of time, I'd rather better myself and try to take college courses. All of that would have to wait until after Leviathan, but it would help to start planning now.

"Dad, I can. There are kids that are twelve that go off to college. At fifteen, I wouldn't be all that special, but I would be able to keep up with the rest of my classmates. I might even make a few friends," I said, trying to play on his emotions.

Part of me felt disgusted with myself for trying to manipulate my dad this way. Another part of me was intrigued by the idea of going to college. After Tag outed me at Arcadia, I had pretty much kissed any chance at a normal civilian life goodbye. I had never really even considered college, even when I was with the Wards, I was more focused on the Slaughterhouse 9, than what I would be doing after high school.

"Taylor, I know you're a smart kid, and don't take this the wrong way, but, your grades aren't anything that will get you into college. Not as a sophomore in high school, and certainly not if you drop out."

"I did well on the standardized tests, remember? I had even gotten an award for them. I remember mom framing it and putting it in my room. If I ace the SAT, I doubt colleges will care as much about the GPA. Also, thats why I want to start at the community college. They have lower standards for admission. I can get in there with a GED and build up a good GPA. I do that, and I can transfer over to Brockton Bay University after a year or so."

"It sounds like a great plan, but no, Taylor. I can't just let you drop out of high school. I don't think you realize how hard those tests are. I know you are a smart kid, but neither I, nor your mother got anywhere close to a perfect score on our SAT's. The GED is a high school equivalency test. It's not the same thing as graduating from high school. The guys in the Union that I can get work for, those are the guys that finished high school. The ones that just got a GED, they have more trouble finding jobs. There is a stigma to not finishing high school Taylor," he ranted.

"If the bullies are really that bad, then let me help. We can talk to your principal and your teachers, or try and change schools. We can make a case for it after what happened in January. I can talk to Alan and see if he can help us out."

It'd be ironic, were Alan Barnes to help us with the bullying issue given that his daughter was at the heart of it all. I still didn't care to try the transfer route. It had failed miserably before and I really didn't want to have to worry about being caught out of school. If we did make a case for it, would I bring in the big guns? I could hire someone like Quinn Calle to handle any legal matters, but that would attract too much attention, and for the time, I was trying to fly as under the radar as possible.

Community college would be a safer route. I heard most classes didn't take attendance and so if I needed to be gone on a job that day it would be much easier. Easier still to lie to my dad that I was in community college and just not go at all. I'd have to find a way to show that I was taking classes. I could always borrow some of Brian's old study material. On the other hand, I could just take the online courses and tell my dad I had to be in class for them whenever I needed.

The GED and SAT, I would need to take. My dad was wrong though, I did know how hard they were. I just planned to get Lisa to help me cheat though the use of our powers. Same for any of the other testing I had to do. He did have a point about the GPA though. Mine wasn't that great, but it was admittedly hard to get good grades when the terrible trio was destroying my projects, stealing homework, sabotaging me during exams, and constantly attacking me during class to the point where I had to pay more attention to them than the teacher, just to survive.

"I'm not going to stop you from talking to Mr. Barnes about building a case, but I'm going to start scheduling my SAT and GED tests."

"Alright, it won't hurt to study for the tests but don't go dropping out of school just yet. The doctors gave you a week off of school to recover. Please just wait a while before you do anything rash. Look up info on the GED, SAT, and colleges. Nothing would make me happier if you made it into college in your sophomore year, but I want you to be going for the right reasons. Not because you don't feel safe in high school, but because you are really ready to head off to college early."

That was all fine. This was more a delaying tactic and plausible excuse for missing more school till it was a moot point. Today is April 12, and if Leviathan attacks on May 15th that gives me roughly four weeks. One week is excused by the doctor, I might fake a concussion from Bakuda for another week. That leaves me skipping two weeks, which they might not bother calling my dad to check on me, after all my dad had been the one to call them last time.

"Alright dad, I'm still leaving Winslow, but I can put it off for a bit."

"Taylor, promise me you will talk to me before you make any decisions."

I looked at my dad in the eyes and lied.

"I promise."

"Come here," he said, pulling me back into a hug. I felt sick lying to him like this, but I had my mission, and if need be, I would sacrifice his trust in me to get it done.

"So now that that is settled, lets have a seat and you can tell me about your new friend."

Actually a much safer topic than the last one.

"Ok so there are actually four new friends. Lisa, whose house I stayed over, Rachel, Alec, and Brian."

"Boys?" my dad looking a bit more alert than a second ago.

"Yes boys, Alec and Brian," I replied.

"Oh…" my dad replied, getting a funny look on his face. A range of concerns went through my mind. I felt defensive about that face. I could have told him there was nothing to worry about, but that wasn't entirely true.

"And girls, Lisa and Rachel," I continued with the conversation, knowing my dad had never pressed sensitive things before and wasn't likely to do so now.

"And you met them at the library?"

"Yep the one downtown, by Arcadia."

"In the middle of the day. And didn't they have school?"

"I mentioned Lisa is home schooled. So are Alec and Rachel. They get together to do schoolwork."

"And Brian?"

"He is taking college courses now. He used to be in the study group, but still hangs out to get college work done. He is also looking at getting his sister in the group, but his dad is having trouble getting custody from his mother."

"Is that why you want to leave Winslow?"

I walked right into that didn't I. Worse he was pretty close to the truth. I was leaving high school in part because of them.

"Part of it. Seeing them, I realize there is an alternative to Winslow."

He paused for a bit, nodding his head a bit, seemingly lost in thought. I waited for him to collect his thoughts. Sitting down at the kitchen table, he looked up to me, and taking that as my cue to join him, I too sat at the table.

"Taylor, I'm sorry high school has been so hard for you. Your mother and I have always wanted what's best for you. I wish she was here now, she was always better at these things than me. She and I had both been bullied at one time or another in our lives, but nothing like what happened in January. I can't even imagine what kind of people would do that to someone. I talked to Alan after and asked him to get Emma to keep an eye out for you. You two had been so close in middle school, but I can tell you hardly ever talk to her anymore. I want you to be happy, and I want you to feel safe. If you want to get out of Winslow this badly, we can start considering alternatives. I don't want you to drop out of high school, but we can look at other options. There are other schools in the area, Arcadia I hear is great. Immaculata is out of my price range, but the Union did work on their gymnasium, so I may be able to pull a few strings, possibly get you a scholarship. Clarendon I honestly don't know much about, but we can look into what they have to offer. I don't know much about homeschooling either, but if your friend Brian made it into college, it might be an option. I'll want to meet them, and their parents. Especially Lisa's if you're spending the night there."

"Ok dad," I said, running through my options, thinking about the lengths I would have to go to in order to keep this lie manageable until it was no longer needed. When it was no longer needed would also be a question of contention, but all these things I could put off for a later time.

"Have you eaten yet?" he asked. "I freed up my schedule for the day. I had hoped to spend more time with my daughter today and I still want to hear more about these friends of yours."

"That sounds great dad," I started, feeling mixed emotions about the prospect of spending the whole afternoon with my dad. It had been less than a week since I had been fighting Scion for the survival of not just my world, but all the worlds. The idea of slowing down to just relax and spend time with my dad was a difficult transition to do. There were things I needed to be doing here at the house, like making new outfits for myself, the Undersiders, weaving reams of silk for combat, planning my next moves, checking in with Blasto, and making sure the rest of the pieces on the board were moving the way they were supposed to.

"You don't look so excited by the idea," he commented.

"I'm just having trouble adjusting to the idea of just relaxing for a bit. Things have been… weird," I replied, greatly understating just how weird things really were. "But I would love to spend the rest of the day with you dad. Want me to make something here, or did you want to head out somewhere?"

"We can head out for food, my treat. You can clean up first if you want. It's only eleven and I thought you would be in a bit later. I have to make a few calls but I should be ready to go in an hour."

"Ok, I'm going to shower and change. I'll be ready in a bit."

"I like your hair."

"What?" I uttered before realizing what he meant. My normally curly hair was now straight, a little mussed from not having showered yet, but still noticeably straight. "Oh right, Lisa straightened it last night."

"It looks good, you look good."

"Thanks dad," I said blushing a little. Stupid hormones. Heading upstairs, I gathered my black widows. I had an hour to burn and taking a shower still let me work in the basement for a bit. Not that my range would let me work when I was out with my dad, but I'd be getting to that as soon as I heard back from Blasto.

0

0

0

Tuesday morning had me heading out for my jog. I brought with me my backpack with clothes, some weapons, and a plethora of black widows in egg cartons to protect them from the jostling. I took a slower pace than normal, reaching out to the bugs as I passed.

My range was a block and a quarter almost. Not great, but getting there. Even with my dad yesterday, I was working on improving my swarm. When we stopped to have lunch, I was breeding the useful bugs and feeding the useless ones and other pests to them.

Still running, I reached for the useful bugs at the front of my range. I'd start them mating, with some finishing by the time they fell out the back of my range, where others, I assumed continued once outside my range once the process started. I took a few of the black widows, using faster flying bugs to carry them. I'd pass through an alley and have the flyers deposit them on my backpack. From there, I directed them to crawl in alongside the others I had on me. I always checked the alley ways before entering, and made sure no one had a line of sight on me when I dropped off the bugs. I manage the whole way to the Undersiders loft without having to stop once for the bugs. I still had to stop for cars, but this was nothing new.

I slowed down as I approached their loft, sending my bugs to search the place before I entered. I found six warm bodies, none of them moving. I checked the webs I had placed before leaving yesterday. All the doors on the upper floor had been opened, even mine after having tagged a line before I left. The freezer door was still closed. The ground floor only had a path to the stairs that had been crossed.

Well it was pretty early for the villains to be up. I made my way in and started getting to work on the ground floor. I started by putting down my bag and directing my black widows out. I set them to weaving egg nests and mating. I made sure to space them far enough apart where they wouldn't be trying to kill each other. There were no guarantees they would stay close to their eggs when I left, but it would be a start.

While I was working on the black widows, I walked through the area, moving bugs and cobwebs out of my way as I made my way into the larger space. Looking around I took inventory of what was available. Massive treadmills and machinery were covered by sheets. I didn't care for any of it, but someone might. At the moment it was just taking up space, not that I needed that much space for what I had planned initially, but I did like my workrooms a bit cleaner.

I turned around, scanning with my eyes and my bugs. There were a few work benches covered with tarps that still had a few tools left on them. I cleared them off and set my bugs to cleaning the tables for me. I tried the lights back near the door I entered through, but found the bulbs had all been smashed a long time ago. I could get my bugs to work in the dark, but I preferred to see what I was doing. I headed upstairs to drop off some clothes. I'd be getting more with Lisa in a few days, but I needed some on hand just in case.

Walking into the great space, I could see a few more empty pizza boxes strewn about the place, with soda, and a few beer cans on the tables too. A quick check with a fly showed a few slices were left out and three cans still half empty. I reached out and started gathering a swarm. I brought bugs upstairs that weren't weaving or mating, and started a cleanup crew. I used the same methods I used to move money and art supplies, and applied them here. I didn't want to devote too much of my focus to directing them, so I tried getting them on autopilot. Like the bugs downstairs, I was able to keep them doing what needed done without much attention on my part. With that task started, I headed into the shower.

Working with my bugs again felt nice, familiar. I finished my shower as the last of the cans had been dragged into the garbage bags I had pulled out. As I toweled off, I felt the lines of web at the front door tear open as a large body moved through. I threw my hair up in a towel and timed my exit from the bathroom to match that of Brian coming up the stairs.

"Oh," I said as we saw each other. I reached to cover myself further, though with the towel on, nothing important was exposed. It was an odd juxtaposition, me in little more than a towel, and Brian, wearing designer clothes from head to toe.

"Sorry, I didn't realize anyone would be up. Here," he said covering my body in darkness, but leaving my head exposed.

"Thanks but, you know that I know that you can see through your darkness right? And seeing as nobody else is up right now, it only means I can't see the rest of my body."

"Right, yeah… ok so…"

"So you can drop your powers, I do have a towel on. Besides with Lisa and Rachel here I can't be the first girl to walk through here in a towel."

"Well kinda, yeah. Lisa has her powers to time her bathroom trips to be a bit more private. Rachel… I don't know if she showers, so yeah, you're the first girl I've seen to walk through here in a towel."

"Well than, I'm flattered I'm your first, but if you'll excuse me, I've got to put some clothes on. Would you mind taking out the trash while I dress?"

"Trash?" he started before I indicated the trash bags near the couch. "Hey you cleaned up. You know you didn't have to. We would have picked up our mess this morning."

"I didn't. I took a shower while my bugs did the work. Now if you're done staring, I'll be off," I said with a faint smirk as Brian tried to gather his thoughts. I walked off to my room with a shy look over my shoulder. I managed to make it inside and shut the door before my blush crept over my face. Very much out of character compared to the first time I had gone after him, but I'll be damned if he is going to start off thinking of me like a sister. I reached out to the bugs I had placed on him. He took a minute to get moving again, having been staring at my door after me. When he did move, he did take out the trash like I had asked.

I dressed in what I had brought over, realizing as I dressed how oversized and bulky my clothes still were. These were the clothes of the victim Taylor, the one before meeting the Undersiders, before superpowers, before entering the cape world. I'd see if Lisa wanted to go shopping this afternoon.

Dressing and walking back out, I checked the progress of my bugs downstairs. The black widows were still building their nest. Each one would house three to four hundred eggs. Multiply that by the fifty or so I had collected and brought with me, and I could have anywhere from 15,000 to 20,000 spiders from the first clutch alone. The incubation period was twenty to thirty days, with another two to four months for them to mature. Less if I kept them well fed. They would be producing before Behemoth, but not before Leviathan.

For Leviathan, I had to collect far more from the surrounding area. I did that now, reaching out further to the full extent of my range, drawing in all the black widows in the area. There weren't many, only a hundred or so. I would need a lot more to finish any new costumes before Leviathan. It was why I had taken a slower jog this morning, setting the valuable insects to reproducing. The black widows took a while to build their nests and lay their eggs, longer than it took me to shower, or jog a block and a quarter. Tomorrow they should be done, and I would be collecting all the ones along my route here. Tonight I planned on a different path, offset three blocks from the one I took to get here. Repeating this process could net me the numbers I would need in a matter of days, with numbers to replenish them in a matter of months. The thought occurred to me to move the nests far above ground level. It wouldn't do to go through all this trouble for a wave from Leviathan to wash them all away.

My thought were interrupted by Brian returning from taking out the trash.

"So you're up early. I thought you were staying with your dad last night. Something happen?"

"No, I actually I had a great day with my dad yesterday. I just came here after my morning jog."

"Thats cool, so what are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here?" I asked with a frown.

"Sorry I didn't mean it like that, it's just, nobody is awake right now, so…"

"You guys said this was my place too. Did you mean that?"

"What? Yeah! Ok it's not coming out right. Can I start again?"

"Sure."

"Morning Taylor, what are you up to?"

"Nothing much, just getting settled in. I thought I'd help clean up a bit. Leaving soda cans and pizza out will draw bugs you know," I said, thinking of the thousands of black widows breeding downstairs.

"Want any help?"

"My bugs have it covered for now, but I could use some help getting furniture later. I don't have a car and can't rent one either."

"Sure, I'm actually looking to get a room set up for my sister, I was gonna rent a car to pick up some furniture. If you're free, I could use the help setting up for her too."

"You hadn't mentioned you had a sister."

"Aisha. She's in 8th grade now and bouncing back and forth between my mom's and dad's. I'm trying to get custody and part of that is getting a room for her in my apartment."

"That's sweet of you. Did you two pick out furniture together?"

"No, I was gonna go without her sometime next week."

"Oh…"

"What?"

"You might want to go shopping with her. You picking out the furniture without her means she is just moving into another room, like her mom, or dads. If she gets to pick out the stuff herself, than the room is more hers, rather than your spare bedroom she is sleeping in."

"Damn, glad I asked. So hey do you wanna,"

"Yes," I replied, a little too eagerly.

"Ha, ok then, I'll get a hold of her and see when she can go shopping with us."

"Sounds great," I said.

A door creaked open behind us, and Brian and I both turned to look as Alec shuffled out into the hall, eyes closed, and made a beeline to the bathroom.

"Not a morning person, I take it?"

"Nope, not at all. He probably won't really be awake for another hour or two. Lisa is about the same. Rachel usually gets up about now and takes her dogs out for a walk."

"And what about you?"

"Me? I'm usually up earlier, check in with the 'job' the boss has set up for me, grab some food and drop it off for the rest of the gang."

"K, so with the rest of them sleeping, what do you usually do when you are here?"

"I work on stuff for my online classes till the rest of them get up. Lately, I've been trying to get Alec in better fighting shape."

"Like a workout routine?"

"Sorta, my dad was in the navy and boxed a lot. He trained me when I was growing up, and lately I've been working with Alec."

"And how is that going?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"He doesn't take it seriously. He makes excuses that he isn't a fist fighter, how he carries around his taser, and doesn't need to know how to throw a punch."

"He does realize that's going to be a weak point in the future. Any cape that can withstand his taser is gonna tear him to pieces."

Brian gave me an appraising look.

"Yeah, masters aren't generally good hand to hand combatants. Most of them have minions that take a beating for them, like you and Rachel. She has her dogs, and you have your bugs. You might want to consider a few sparring lessons too."

"I have actually. I'm a pretty good close combatant. Wanna see?"

His grin reminded me why I had come back. Ear to ear, and full of joy. Damn Bonesaw for taking that away from me.

"Sure, I'm up for going a few rounds on the mat. So how much training do you have?"

"Less time than yours, but I can still take you."

"Ha! You might be eating those words soon," he joked, walking over to the mats that were up against the wall.

I joined him in bringing them down and getting them in place. The loft had a lot of empty space, even with the mats down, there was space to add a few more rooms.

Brian took off his shoes, jacket and shirt, leaving his designer jeans and a form fitting undershirt. I kept on the clothes I was wearing, having only put on casual clothes after my shower.

"Ok so tap out if,"

I charged, not letting him finish his sentence. I hit him hard in the gut and followed it up with a legsweep, dropping him neatly on the ground. He huffed out a breath on the impact before I pounced on him, pinning his arms with my shins.

"Gonna tap out Brian?"

"No fair, you cheated!"

"No duh, remember how I'm a super villain? What makes you think I'm going to play fair?"

"Cause I'm your teammate."

"That just makes this easier," I retorted.

He tapped out and I let him up. I turned my back to him and started walking back to the other end of the mat. He popped up quick and took a swing at my shoulder. I felt him move through my bugs and spun. His punch barely connected with my shoulder and only served to help me finish my spin. As I rounded to face him, I grabbed his outstretched arm, using his momentum to throw him off balance. He tried to step forward to catch himself, but I tripped him up, bringing him down to the ground hard. He caught himself with his other hand, stopping him from face planting. I kicked out his elbow and simply sat on his back to get him to the ground.

"Pinned you again."

"How'd you see that punch coming?" he asked, tapping out for the second time.

"Powers."

"That's cheating."

"Yeah, I keep telling you but you don't seem to listen."

"Right you are a super villain, but how do your powers tell you I'm throwing a punch at your back?"

I just smiled back in return as he rolled onto his back and stood up. If he escalated this like I was hoping he would, he would find out soon enough.

"Round three?" I asked.

Sure enough, he threw up his darkness at me. I stood bewildered, waving my hand in front of my face, trying to see through the inky blackness. Brian wasted no time, stepping around behind me. He stepped in reaching for a choke hold, only for me to drop down, rolling between his legs, and springing up behind him, to leave him in a choke hold. I had to jump up to get him, which left my feet up off the ground. Brian grabbed hold of my legs and leapt back onto his back, hitting me hard against the mat. It knocked the wind out of me, but I kept my grip. He struggled against my grip for a few more seconds before giving up and tapping out. I held till he dropped his darkness, tapping more.

"How the hell did you do that?" he coughed out.

He rolled off me, and seeing I was a little worse for the wear, stooped to help me sit up.

"Powers," I managed to get out in between spasms.

"You ok?"

"Knocked," spasm "wind out," spasm.

"I'll give you a sec," he said.

I waited for the spasms to stop before I continued.

"I used my bugs the second and third time. I place a few on your joints so I can tell where you are and what part of you is moving. It works through your darkness and when my back is turned."

"That's a sick set of powers. Would be nice if I could do that with my darkness."

"Do what with your darkness," Lisa asked from her doorway.

"Hey Lisa," I said from my seated spot on the floor.

"Are you beating up the new girl Brian?"

"The other way around. Three rounds and she tapped me out each time."

Lisa gave me a look of near incredulity. I smirked in response and stood up off the mat.

"Looking to go a round Lisa?" I asked, knowing the answer before I asked the question.

Alec came out, still bleary eyed, and tried shuffling back to his room before being grabbed and spun by Lisa.

"Nope," she replied, but Alec does," she giggled, pushing him in our direction.

He stumbled a few steps before getting his bearings. Finally whipping his eyes, he took in the room around him.

"What?" he asked.

I started laughing. Lisa joined in, followed shortly by Brian. Alec, who was still too out of it to process things, just looked around lost. The dogs started barking and Rachel stormed out shortly after.

We all stopped when we saw the look of rage on her face. The room was dead silent except for the dogs barking. Then I snorted. It was embarrassing and very unladylike in front of Brian, but it got Lisa laughing again. Brian tried to keep his composure, but fell into laughing with the rest of us.

Rachel's face turned from rage to confusion, then back to rage as she went to tend to her dogs. We settled down after a bit, shortly after Alec finally got his bearings.

"So whats up?" he asked.

"Brian was just looking for a new sparring partner," I supplied.

"Count me out, I'm going back to bed."

"Oh no you don't Alec. Remember we talked about sparing in the mornings?" Brian said, throwing up darkness at Alec's door.

"Hey no fair," he whined.

"We are super villains," Brian supplied, "we don't play fair."

Lisa looked to me at that and I nodded in reply, answering her unspoken question.

"So what are you up to Lisa?" I asked.

"I was gonna call the boss to check in. You mentioned you had a list of things you needed?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said, heading back to my room to grab the list I had penned out for her.

"Here," I said, handing her the stack of orders I had compiled and printed last night.

"Wow you weren't kidding when you said you had a list."

"A lot of it is for the team. I have a few items that are on a couple pages, showing sketches, or specs of what I am looking for. Others are bugs with images showing distinctive markings to identify them along with what regions of the world to find them in and how to transport them to keep them alive."

"What regions of the world to find them in? What kinds of bugs are you bringing in?"

"Exotic ones, though most are from South and Central America. I am asking for one set of spiders from Madagascar. Those actually are the really useful ones."

"What makes them so useful?" Alec asked, a bit more intrigued by the stack of papers than sparing with Brian.

"The Darwin's Bark spider. It produces some of the strongest silk in the world. If I could get my hands on a dozen of them, I could have a factory producing their silk up and running in a few months."

"So, you can do what with them? Have some really strong dresses?" Alec asked.

"Yep."

"Are they really that strong?" Lisa asked, a little awestruck.

I raised my index finger to cover my lips. She nodded before I continued.

"Strong enough to stop bullets, knives, or swords."

Grue let out a long whistle.

"Damn, and you can make costumes out of that? Any chance you could make me one when this factory is up and running?"

"Sure, I'm making a spare costume for myself downstairs now, I just started them weaving, so if I can measure you, I can start them spinning in your size. I'm using black widow silk, which is the second strongest spider silk, but still strong enough to stop those same bullets, knives, and swords."

"Not with the spiders again. How many do you have downstairs working right now?"

"I,"

"No, I don't want to know. I shouldn't have asked. Why couldn't we find a cape who controlled bunnies, or pigeons, or hamsters. We had to get the one who controlled deadly spiders and thinks it's a great idea to make a spider factory right where we sleep."

"Alec,"

"No. I'm going back to bed and pretending this is all a bad dream. Wake me up in a few hours but don't mention the… lets call them bunnies."

"I have less than two hundred downstairs. It's really nothing to worry about."

"Less than two hundred? Less than two hundred? When is it something to worry about?"

"When the eggs they laid start hatching. Each pair can lay up to nine nests with up to four hundred eggs each. So say one hundred times nine times four hundred comes out to about three hundred and sixty thousand. That's when you can start worrying."

Alec's face grew pale. He turned without another comment and walked straight back to his room, slamming the door.

Brian started laughing, as did I and Lisa, though her to a lesser extent.

"So how many do you have down there really?" Brian asked.

"Oh I wasn't joking about the numbers. Well the egg sacks range from three hundred to four hundred and the spiders can lay up to nine nests but generally don't. Also only about 12 of the eggs will hatch before other spiders consume them.

"So how many are we talking about then?"

"High end? Same number if not more. I plan on bringing more with me every morning. Low end, still about two hundred thousand. I plan on making sure all the eggs hatch and none of the spiders eat each other."

"And you need all of them to make a costume?" Lisa asked this time.

"A few costumes."

"How many?"

"Enough," I said, giving Lisa a pointed look. "So you think the boss can get all that?"

"Maybe, but shipping on some of these things might take a while. The ones from Madagascar are gonna be hard to get and most of the bugs won't clear customs. When I said the boss could get us supplies, I wasn't really thinking about bugs. Some of these I haven't even heard of. What is a Habrobracon?"

"Its a wasp that is effectively immune to radiation."

"When are you going to need a bug immune to radiation?"

"For the next time Behemoth attacks."

"Seriously? The next endbringer attack isn't supposed to be for another month or so, and that is supposed to be Leviathan if the PRT thinkers are right. Behemoth won't strike for another two months after that."

"I did list them in order of priority. Check the second page on the stack, it should have a numbered list of the item sets."

"Wow you spent some time on this…"

"I spent the day with my dad, but in the evening I compiled the list."

"You don't cut corners do you?"

"I want to make sure I get this right, so yes I am rather thorough. I take this seriously, despite me messing with Alec earlier."

Lisa gave me a piercing look, no doubt trying to figure out why I was taking this so seriously. Brian just shrugged it off.

"So Brian, you wanna go another round?"

Darkness shot up around me and he came in swinging, a head body combination. Lisa tried to watch but gave up after a few rounds of me and Brian fighting under the cover of his darkness.

After a few rounds, Brian started to win a few. He managed to counter a few of my grapples and got me pinned once or twice. He used his size and strength to muscle out of some of my pins, where if I were stronger, he would have had to tap out to get free.

Bitch had taken her dogs out and come back by the time Alec came out of his room.

"Your turn Alec," I said as he closed his door behind him.

"Ugh,"

"Your choice, fight Brian and his darkness, or take on me with my powers."

"Brian!" he shouted.

I hadn't thought he was that bothered by the bugs, but then again, I was messing with him a lot. He stepped on the mat just as Lisa walked out of the kitchen.

"Pull up your socks, boys and girls, because we're robbing a bank!"


	11. Mandible 2-2

2.2 Mandibles

"Pull up your socks, boy and girls, because we're robbing a bank!"

My blood ran cold at those words. I froze, mouthing the words I wanted to utter, but being unable to do so.

"No, such a bad idea," Brian answered for me.

I noticed the phone still open in Lisa's hands and tried to pull myself together, but my mind was screaming in protest, NO! None of this made any sense. I sent Dinah away, so unless I had overestimated Coil, he should have been keeping tabs on her to know she left. Had she come back, or he was using his power to find her, or looking to kidnap her parents to get her back? Her parents, I hadn't thought about. Would they have left too, gone with her, or had some way to get a hold of her?

"Come on, it's a rite of passage for dastardly criminals like us," Lisa whined, oblivious to the panic I was experiencing.

"This is moronic. You know the average haul for robbing a bank?" Brian answered. "Way less than what we pulled on the casino job."

"Average is twenty thou."

"And how much did you pull on your last job?"

It took me a second before I realized he was talking to me.

"Four hundred thousand," I answered, in a monotone.

"Four hundred thousand? I thought you pulled in way more than that?" Lisa replied, in a fit of consternation.

I was still trying to process the implications of what this could mean, I didn't notice her staring till Rachel entered the building with dogs a barking.

"Rachel is here," I said, without preamble, snapping back to reality.

Realizing I could be making false conclusions, I had to ask, I had to know.

"Why?" I asked, realizing belatedly, I should have confirmed what bank and time.

"What do you mean, why? 'Cause we are criminals and robbing banks are fun," Lisa replied, giving me a curious look.

I didn't need to worry about her powers, making a connection to Dinah. No way she would have any knowledge of who she was, or what part she played in all of this. Dinah was safe from Lisa's powers, for now.

"I told you how to pull in more money with less risk. We hit the criminals. One group doesn't step up to help the other, so no reinforcements, other than their own capes or minions. No hero's involvement, or at least if they do get involved, they aren't likely to target us first. So why a bank? Why a civilian target?"

"Boss wants to see how well we run together as a team."

"Bullshit, we can do that against a criminal group, like the ABB, Merchants, Empire, or Coil. Why pit us against the heroes?"

"Maybe because he is sponsoring us, and wants to show off the newest cape publicly. He also really wants us to pull of this job in a certain area and in a certain time frame," Lisa retorted.

"What bank and when?" I asked, trying to contain my trepidation.

She gave me a confused look before answering.

"Brockton Bay Central, downtown, and he gave us the option of choosing the time, anywhere from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. We have to plan the time in advance, let him know, and stick to it."

"Why that time frame?" Brian asked.

"Ok, so, Bay Central is the distribution hub for the whole city, with cars coming in twice a week. Thursday, between 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm, should be the best day and time for the sheer size of the take. We are looking at ninety thou, easy."

"No way they are keeping that much money on hand," Brian interjected.

"So they aren't, but for pulling this job, the boss is offering to meet us two to one, so we pull in thirty grand, he pays us another sixty, bringing our total to ninety. He is also offering a flat fee of twenty five grand, regardless of our haul."

"That's insane, how can he be making any money off this job?"

"Who says he is interested in making money here?" I asked, "sending us in to hit Bay Central sounds more like he is putting us up as a distraction."

"What do you mean, a distraction?" Lisa asked, giving me a piercing look.

"Bay Central, downtown, is a mile away from Arcadia High. We hit the bank, we are almost guaranteed to be going up against the Wards from the get go. And, I know they will have issues dispatching during school, but if they stagger their departures, they are still sending any and all available Wards right to us. On top of that, we have the Protectorate to deal with when they show up."

"Actually, the Protectorate will be out of town at an event on Thursday, so we should only be dealing with the Wards," Lisa supplied.

"What about New Wave?" Brian asked, "you ready to go up against Alexandria Junior and the Photon Mom?"

"Panacea would be worse, but if the Wards get there first, New Wave won't interfere," I supplied.

"The healer? Why would she be worse than her sister Glory Girl?" Alec asked, adding his voice to the conversation for the first time.

"Because healing is more a secondary aspect of Panacea's powers. She can manipulate biology, which she chooses to heal, but if she gets her hands on you, she can do irreparable damage. You get hit by Glory Girl, provided you survive, doctors and surgeons can put you back together. Panacea could give you cancer with a touch, crohns, diabetes, STD's, or create a whole new disease we would never have a way of treating. All that is only if she doesn't just turn off your heart as soon as she touches you."

"Fuck, too bad she works with New Wave. How cool would it be if we had her on our team?" Alec replied.

To do that, I would need to separate her from her 'sister'. Much easier said than done.

"Right but we won't be going up against her and her sister, we are looking at maybe one or two of the strongest the Wards can field. Taylor, you seem to know just about every cape in the city, not sure how you know, but why don't you give us a rundown of the local Wards?" Lisa asked, giving me a vulpine grin, no doubt to remind me she still had questions.

"Right, so the major one we have to worry about is Clockblocker. He freezes time with a touch. He lacks control over how long, meaning you could be frozen anywhere from thirty seconds to ten minutes. Once you unfreeze, he can freeze you again, giving you, maybe a few seconds to react. He tags any of us, and we are looking at a prolonged engagement, with the possibility of having the Protectorate show up."

"So we fight them too, we could handle them before we got you," Rachel said, glaring at me.

"Up until now, you have been picking and choosing your battles, fighting to flee more often than not. Aside from your dogs, Rachel, the Undersiders don't have a heavy hitter," I said, staring right back at her.

She looked toward her dogs, scratching Brutus behind the ear affectionately.

"Did the milk help? The pepper spray is supposed to wear off after an hour or so for humans, but I know dogs have heightened senses and might have a longer recovery period," I asked.

She gave me a confused look. Before answering.

"They are fine."

She didn't seem to want to discuss it further, so I dropped it and went back to the Wards discussion. The rest of the Undersiders were looking at the pair of us like we had grown two heads.

"Next big one is Vista, youngest and oldest member of the Wards," I continued.

"What? How is she both oldest and youngest?" Alec asked.

"Youngest age wise, but has been on the team longer than any of the others, hence oldest member. Don't let her age or size fool you though. She is one of the more powerful capes you will encounter. Her abilities focus on space manipulation, where she can turn a mile into an inch, and an inch into a mile. She will be where Clockblocker will get an advantage, compressing an area to an inch so he can tag you from across the street. She is also hard to pin down, using those same powers to grow the distance between her and her attacker, while shrinking the distance behind her, giving her an exit route when she needs it. She does have her weaknesses, like most capes, she is bound by the Manton Effect. She can't warp a space already occupied by something biological."

I paused to look at the room. Rachel was still tending her dogs, but looked like she was at least listening. Lisa was staring hard at me, no doubt still trying to figure out how I knew what I did, listening for cues as to how I felt about each Ward. She had set me up to monologue, working me over with her power, as I divulged everything relevant about the Wards we might be going up against. I wasn't so worried about that right now. We had had our talk, and she agreed to work with me for the time being.

Brian, for his part, was actually smiling at me a little. Noticing this, I nearly started blushing, not something I wanted to do while discussing our opposition. Alec just seemed bored.

"So next up is Aegis," I continued, worrying what it would mean if we came up against him. "A tank that packs a punch. He has a physiology that creates redundancies. We stab him through the heart, his liver starts pumping blood, gouge out his eyes, and his exposed skin starts sensing light. Rachel, we ever get in a fight against him, go all out with damage, just keep his head attached to his shoulders."

"All out?" she asked, perking up.

"Tell your dogs to hurt, hold, whatever, just be mindful of his head, his brain might heal from damage, but then again, maybe not."

"Next up is Browbeat."

"He is a solo cape," Lisa supplied.

"Who recently signed on with the Wards. We encounter the Wards, we might be going up against him."

"We ran into him not too long ago, Alec and Rachel beat him. He was running solo, but you're saying he joined up with the Wards."

"Yep."

"How could you know that when even Lisa doesn't?" Brian asked.

"I bugged the Wards' facility," I lied, giving Lisa subtle hand motion to hold off.

"Damn, so is this how you know so much about everyone?" Alec asked.

"Part of it. So Lisa, do you want to pick up with Browbeat?"

"I thought you were doing a great job. Why don't we hear what the PRT has to say about his abilities?" she responded, giving me a dubious look.

"Fine, so a point blank telekinetic with a personal biokinesis. He pairs up his powers, packing on muscle, and delivering crushing blows with his telekinesis."

"We took him before, we can take him again," Rachel added.

"True, but then you had the numbers on your side, and only one enemy to focus on. With him on the Wards, it will be harder to keep him in check. If he gets the drop on us, lights out."

"If you're scared, stay home, we can do this without you," Rachel growled out.

"We haven't agreed we are doing this yet," Brian supplied, "Taylor is just spelling out what we are up against right now."

"I'm in," Alec volunteered.

"Me too," Rachel followed up with.

"So that's four of us Brian," Lisa stated.

"Three, I say no," I stated.

"What? No? But you're giving us the rundown of the capes we could be going up against, you're preparing to do this," Lisa argued.

"I want you to be aware of what we are going up against, but my vote is no."

"Look, I know it's not as much as you pulled in against Lung, but that's actually a lot riskier. Lung doesn't really play by the rules. Going up against him, he might actually kill you. The Wards will arrest you, but for a first strike, you aren't looking at going to the Birdcage. First timers, especially minors, get prison sentences, but not anywhere you couldn't get out of if you tried."

"I'm not worried about getting caught by either group. We could take the Wards team if it came down to it. What I don't want, is to even go up against the Wards, or the Protectorate, or hit any civilian target."

"Then why be a villain?" Alec asked.

"I'd rather not. If I had the choice, I'd rather be labeled a Rogue."

"Why?" Brian asked.

"Because villains are attacked, on sight, by all groups. Rogues, get a pass from the Heroes. Why that route? Because the less capes we are in open conflict with, the longer we last as a group and as individuals. Take Faultlines crew, for example. They pull legitimate and illegitimate jobs, but most of the illegitimate work is done out of town. You did the same thing with your casino job in Atlantic City. Most hero groups don't go outside the cities they are based in. The New York teams don't even go outside their boroughs without authorization. Faultline is able to operate in this city, without fear of the heroes coming knocking on her door, because she is considered more of a rogue, and less of a direct threat to anyone in Brockton Bay. We start going down this route, attacking civilian targets outright, and we are going to move up on the hero's list of targets."

"Some of us are already pretty high up there," Brian said, no doubt thinking of Rachel and possibly Alec.

"Which isn't an excuse to keep going down that route," I said, trying to reason with them.

"We are who we are," Brian replied, "I agree we shouldn't do this, but I'm not backing down because I don't care about pissing off the Heroes."

This wasn't going how I had hoped. I never expected to be running the bank job again, not after raiding the ABB drug house, or moving Dinah from the city. This was Coil playing at something. What, I had no idea yet, but tonight I was going to find out. I also needed to call Armsmaster. Hopefully our talk wouldn't be as bad as it was last time. I was glad I hadn't spent too much time pissing him off.

"Fine, I'm in," I said.

"That's not what I was asking of you. I still don't think this is a good idea."

"It's not, it's a terrible idea, and may come back to bite us in the long run, but the majority of the team is committed, and I'm not going to sit on the sidelines while you guys are taking risks, or pulling this job."

"Yay! Four against one Brian. Come on, it will be fun," Lisa interposed.

"Fine. You guys want to hit a bank, we can hit a bank," Brian relented.

"Great, so lets get to planning. When would you guys want to hit the bank?"

Another big question for me. I meant what I said about not wanting to piss off the major capes, that included New Wave. Hitting the bank between 3:00 PM and 4:00 PM means we would likely run into them, or at least two of their members. We would need to be clear by 2:30 PM to be on the safe side.

"I'd rather wait till threeish. No sense in rushing into a fight," Alec stated.

"No, we need to hit closer to 2:00 PM. We go around 1:00 PM, and the Wards might a have lunch break. Wait until 3:00 PM, they might be out of school for the day, or will be by the time we finish."

"Works for me," Lisa said.

"Alright so we hit the bank at 2:00 PM. How are we going to do this?"

"Carefully," I stated, before laying out the rough plan for them.

Lisa brought out her laptop, using it to get a satellite image of the bank, from which she sketched out the layout. Using photos of the bank manager, she noted his office, then the bank tellers, lock boxes, vault, entrances, and exits.

Alec left to make food before we had even finished with the bank layout. I, having pulled this job before, gave direction on where to enter and our various exit strategies. We discussed the lockboxes for a bit, going over strategy for cleaning them out that didn't involve the dogs tearing through the doors and whatever was held inside. I remembered Lisa talking about Coil stealing the deeds to many properties along the waterfront. I had my own goals for properties to acquire. I would steal the deeds if the option presented itself, or buy them when I had the funds.

Alec returned with a plate of pizza pockets just as we were finishing up.

We discussed the rest of the Wards and what their strengths and weaknesses were. I outlined tactics for handling each of them, who was a priority, and who would be focused on handling which capes. I also expanded to cover the rest of the Protectorate, but was stopped when I tried covering New Wave too.

After, the meeting, Brian and Alec sat down to watch TV. Rachel, headed out with her dogs. Lisa and I stayed in the kitchen. When we heard the sounds of gunfire and explosions from the TV, Lisa jumped right in.

"So what is it that has you so freaked out? I could see it as soon as I mentioned the bank job."

I paused to check with my bugs that we were out of earshot of the others before answering.

"It's a setup," I started, "the boss is setting us up as a distraction. I want to know why."

"So that's the 'why' you were asking. What does it matter, so long as we still get paid and don't get caught?" she asked.

"Trust me when I say it matters. I'll be looking into this on my own, but next time you talk to him see what you can find out, okay?"

"You sure you want me digging? You might not like what I find out."

"It's you handling it that I would be more worried about, but yes, I am sure I want you digging. I also have a side project for you when we get to the bank."

"Oh, and what kind of side project is this?"

"The kind that sets us up for our next big job. Also the kind that is kept quiet about, as in 'don't tell the boss or the rest of the team'."

"I can keep a secret," she said, smiling at the irony of the situation. "But it'll cost you…"

"Do you want money or information?"

"I want to know who the hell you are, for real. You keep saying trust you, and I'm getting that I should from my powers, but I want to know why. Why do you know so much about the capes in this city, and don't give me that 'I bugged the PRT' bullshit. I know there is a lot more than you are letting on. Tell me," Lisa wheedled.

"No."

"Just 'no'?"

"I already had this conversation with you."

"Yeah, but you said later, and it's later," Lisa wheedled.

"Give me," I said, pausing to think of a date it would be safe, "four weeks. Five weeks and I can tell you half the story."

"What happens in five weeks?"

"I can't tell you."

"Well what the hell can you tell me?" Lisa said, a little vexed.

"I can tell you that the next job I have planned could bring us in a couple million."

"Split five ways?"

"Split five ways, with a little to the boss. Part of the job is keeping the boss in the dark. The other part starts at the bank."

"I'm listening."

"The first part starts with accessing accounts at the bank. I have two names for you, but you can't write either of them down, or search for information on them anywhere that can be traced back to you. You need to be very careful where you even mention these names."

"Are they the secret identities of some big name capes?"

"The first name is Max Anders. He owns Medhall in downtown, but you would know him as Kaiser."

"Fuck me! You want to go after the Empire 88?!" Lisa squeaked.

"That's where we are going to make the millions. Medhall is a large corporation and should have access to emergency funds. Your part at the bank will be to find out how much money Mr. Anders or Medhall can have access to at any given point in time."

"A company like Medhall is making several hundred million a year at least!"

"And I want to know what their liquid assets are, so we can drain them dry."

"How?"

"That part I'll tell you later."

"Again with the tell me later part? Fine, whatever. So who is the next name, or do I even want to know?"

"I think you really want to know this next name."

"Oh?" she replied, giving me her full attention.

"It's a name you have been trying to figure out since Coil hired you."

"Tell me."

"Thomas Calvert."

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I sat alone in a coffee shop, new laptop on the table, browsing cape forums and the Parahumans Wiki. I was multitasking, trying to refresh my memory on who was active at this point in time and researching capes that might have been effective, had they been fielded against Scion. It was something I never really had time to do when the world went to hell. We had been caught off guard in the wake of his initial attacks, with millions dying when Scion first struck the British Isles.

Instead, I had spent two years of my life focusing on Jack Slash and his Slaughterhouse 9,000. I had agonized over their list of members, former members, and recent acquires, Blasto among them. I had spent long hours on stakeouts, like this one, wondering how to gain access to Dodge's pocket dimensions, wondering if there was some way to track their existence. I had thought Jack might mix Big Rig's drones to Toy Soldier's power suit, and create something of a mecha Endbringer. Long nights were spent trying to figure out how Pyrotechnical or Bauble could be weaponized on a world ending scale. In retrospect, it had been tech from Cranial and Glace that had given them their edge.

I sipped my black tea, reading what little information was available on them for public access. It wasn't much, nor would it be. The capes that were at the Toy Box were, naturally, all relative newcomers. Well established tinkers didn't need the sanctuary provided by the Toy Box, but most of the up and comers, if they didn't want to be pulled into one cape group, or another, found the Toy Box ideal. For a third of their income on any sales or jobs, they were provided a shelter, to work alone, or in collaboration with any other tinkers present. When they first started out, they tended towards a more mobile base, starting with retrofitted mobile homes, growing to transition to a derelict freighter. That was before Leviathan appeared. When the shipping industry collapsed under his tidal waves and initial attacks on both commercial and civilian ships, they had to abandon the ocean vessel.

Now they had a permanent base in Wellesley, near the College. Dodge, with his pocket dimensions, had created a facility that had proved nigh impregnable. There were rumors he had sold some to criminal and legitimate organizations as panic rooms, but in all Dragon's searching, they had proved little more than rumors. Even the location of the base was only confirmed after the Nine attacked.

We did find some information, from the few former members, on the nature of the security system. To gain access to the Toy Box, one had to be a member, or former member in good standing. I had spent a long time going over the reports, supplied by Dragon, before I could figure out how the Nine had gotten in. We were never able to repeat the process without knowing the location of the link to their portal. We had found out, after the fact, that they had posted up in Killington. Sadly, even knowing the city wouldn't help me if they escaped a second time. To break in, among other things, you needed to know the location of the link to within a five foot radius. Not something I would be able to manage in looking for the Toy Box, nor for the S9 again.

"More tea miss?" the server asked, giving me the stink eye.

I had been here for the better part of the afternoon, using their free wifi, but only ordering tea. This area tended to attract a higher class of clientele, though with the construction on the other side of the street, most of the tables were empty.

"Yes please," I said, not minding her glares.

"Black?"

"Thank you," I said, returning my eyes to my screen, but directing my attention to the office tower currently under construction before me.

I had been tracking movement in and out of the facility below ground. The lowest floor was still within my range, but only just. Parts of the base, I would need to walk around to the other side of the building to feel, and walk I had. I had walked around twice, stopping in at some of the street eateries for a few minutes at a time, getting the lay of the land.

The far side was where the supplies came in and out. The side nearest to me, lay the communications department, Cape barracks, and Coil's personal study. I had found the Travelers easy enough on my walk. They were milling about, some watching the construction, others watching TV. I had checked on Noel's enclosure, and had found it seriously lacking in any real security. Apparently, they hadn't reinforced her cell until much later. My search today showed a single roll down door. Hardly secure when you consider the size of the doors she tore through in the original timeline. For now, though, it seemed Trickster was keeping her company, but standing on the opposite side of the shutter.

The reason I had come out here was not to spy on the Travelers, though knowing they were already here would help me later. No, the reason I had come here was Dinah, but in all my searching and waiting, I had found nothing. No sign of her here, no Mr. Piter type individual, no back room she was being held in. No evidence whatsoever to even hint that she had ever been here. It was both frustrating and reassuring. It meant that Dinah was not a slave to Coil yet, but it also meant I still had no answer as to why Coil wanted us to hit the bank. Seeing the Travelers, I thought he might be using our attack on the bank to move Noel, but seeing her here now proved that to be false. I was left with no answer to my question sadly. Not here, nor at the Alcott's.

It wasn't a complete waste of time though. I had successfully scouted the base of the most dangerous supervillain in Brockton Bay and planned out my next few steps to taking him down.

"Here you go miss, can I get you anything else?" the waitress asked, with mock sincerity.

"Check please," I said, in a polite voice, though without lifting my eyes from my computer screen.

I had been staring at the same page for a while now. Anyone snooping might have noticed something was wrong, but with my back to the wall, that seemed unlikely. Having found nothing of note here, I paid the check in cash, leaving a hundred extra in tip, despite the bitchy service, and headed back to the Alcott's. The first time scouting the place was just after noon. The house was empty, though that could easily have been due to it being a school day for Dinah, and a work day for her parents. It was 4:00 pm now and should be closer to 5:00 pm when I arrived. Were she still in town, school would be out by then, and her parents would likely be getting back from work, if not already home with her.

Enroute, I called the PRT.

"Parahuman Response Team, how can I direct your call?"

"I need to speak with Armsmaster," I replied, wishing I knew his emergency code.

Each cape working for the Protectorate or Wards had one. It allowed for direct contact without the calls being recorded. I had known his code as Defiant, but here and now, I had no idea what Armsmaster's was. It would have allowed me to bypass the normal screening that was necessary with 'celebrities'. There were too many fans or critics that would waste everyones time with nonsensical calls. I really didn't know how New Wave dealt with it all.

"Please state your name and the nature of the call. Please note, if this is an emergency, hang up and dial 911," the phone operator responded, sounding more like a machine than an actual person.

"I can't give you my name, and the nature of the call pertains to an emerging cape war instigated by the ABB," I started. "I will need a message passed along."

"I'm sorry miss, but I'll need to know who this message is from."

"I'm the one he owes a favor to. Tell him to meet me tonight, nine pm, at the Valleyford Parking garage, the one near the Medhall office tower."

"Miss, I -"

I cut her off before she could refuse. It had worked last time around, so I had to hope it wasn't just luck or happenstance that made him show up.

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I could hear his motorcycle before I could feel it. He took his time, riding up the ramp, floor by floor. The garage was unique in that it used a spiraling ramp to go up each level. It left Armsmaster having to search each floor before riding up the ramp again. Covered in insects, and nearly hanging off the wall, I stayed quiet as he rode by, before returning to the ramp to ride up again.

[You're late,] I called out with my bugs, from the direction of my clone.

I had placed a mannequin, spraypainted black with yellow sequins glued to the eyes, on the floor above me. It was nothing fancy, but would provide a better base for my bugs to crawl on. I had tried and failed to create a passable clone several times before giving up, deciding on this mannequin. I remembered how I was supposed to arrange the insects to replicate the image of a human form, but trying to do so, felt more clunky and awkward than I remembered. This would have to do in the meantime.

His reaction was near instantaneous, whipping his halberd to point at the source of the noise. Without a word, he dismounted and approached, weapon is hand, his head scanning the floor for an ambush.

[Please lower your weapon. I am unarmed and have no interest in a fight.]

"Who are you?"

Really? I would have thought he could have figured out the hints I had given his secretary.

[Monarch,] I stated, not wanting to start with Armsmaster. I was probably in his bad books for the state of Lung, among other things.

[Between the beige minivan and the blue sedan.]

He hesitated, pressing a few buttons on his halbert before my dummy came into view.

"You look different," he replied, weapon still in hand.

[I do. You look the same, still pointing a weapon at an ally.]

"You think we are allies?" he spat.

[Did Triumph and Aegis not tell you of their mission.]

I couldn't get that to sound like a question. Really, I should just be happy I could speak clearly through my bugs at all. It was not like riding a bike, just pick it up again and go. No, I had spent all afternoon whispering to myself, having to concentrate on the sounds and how the bugs could make them. Before I came back, my passenger seemed to be able to handle it without me having to devote any attention to it. I had thought on that for a while, but here and now was not the place to reevaluate my conclusions. For now I had to be happy I had the mannequin, freeing me up to have a passable conversation through my bugs.

"What did you do to them," he growled.

So he hadn't seen either of them since then. Well, another question answered.

[I sent them to protect the priority one cape. They will be on radio silence until they are needed.]

"You sent two junior heroes to protect a priority one? We have a whole contingent of capes here and abroad that would be better suited to handle a priority one. The Triumvirate,"

[Is compromised,] I interrupted. [Nearly every major cape team here and abroad has been infiltrated. Even the Brockton Bay teams have several operatives here.]

"You're an excellent liar, trying to make me believe there is some secret organization pulling all the strings."

[I can out one if you'd like. You can interrogate the individual for yourself.]

"And until then, you leave me believing whatever you say…"

[You could always check your lie detector.]

He paused, appraising my bug mannequin. He still had his halbert in his hand and pointed at me, but had been lowering it noticeably during our conversation.

"Somehow you are beating it. I can't tell if you are lying or not."

[Scary that you might have to decide for yourself to trust me or not.]

"Who."

[First we talk price. I may need another favor soon.]

"You seem to fond of asking for favors. What if I were to ask one of you instead?"

[Depends. If it interferes with my objectives here, I will have to say no.]

"You managed to track down and take out Lung with little difficulty. I want you to do the same to Kaiser and the Empire."

[And you want to take credit for those wins too, I take it.]

I knew well enough the extent to which Armsmaster would go for personal gain and glory. I could use this to my advantage.

[That's a tall order, bringing an organization as large as the Empire 88 to its knees. A favor that large and risky will require a lot of me.]

"You owe me for Lung."

[I delivered you a major villain and you helped me with the Priority one. How you could imagine I owe you for Lung,] I asked, still annoyed that my questions sounded like statements.

"You gave me a dead man!" he bellowed, disturbing some of my bugs, and cutting me off.

[That is on your shoulders. I gave you full warning the level of poisoning he had sustained. So you didn't listen to me and faced punishments from Piggott. Let me guess, you had to put up with two days of losing command of your team, two days where they confiscated your Halberd and power armor. No doubt you were interrogated, all your equipment taken apart and checked. All because you didn't listen when I said he had sustained a lethal dose of venom.]

"You made it sound as if regular medical treatment would have sufficed! His heart stopped several times even after we gave him the required antivenom. I was forced to call in Panacea, and that requires notifying Director Piggott. You set me up to take the fall for your overdose, and I took it. I took the blame, held my tongue, and kept your name out of it when I was interrogated. If I hadn't showed up, he would have died in that alley. So you tricked me into taking credit for your screw ups."

[Or he would have been fine if you hadn't tranquilized him. That shot you gave him slowed his regenerative abilities. All your talk of what is owed and what isn't is bullshit. You poisoned my favor. Good that you kept your mouth shut, but we both know it wasn't for my benefit. You show up with Lung claiming it was your win and they find out it wasn't? Well thats worse in your mind than them thinking you went too far. But now you want to take down the Empire, and you need my help in doing so. That works for me, but I'll need some things from you to do so.]

"Of course you will," he replied, lacing the statement with sarcasm.

[You want me to bring down the Empire, fine, but that's not something I can do without breaking some laws. If you want me to do this, then I need to know you are going to have my back if shit goes sideways. If I infiltrate a criminal organization and get caught in a bust, I need to know you will keep me out of jail. If I have to pull a few jobs with the Empire or another group before I can get close to Kaiser to take him down, I need to know you will keep me for going down for them.]

"You are asking me to condone any crimes you commit, giving you a free pass to,"

[Play the role of a villain, for the greater good.]

"I'm not about to turn a blind eye to you running around as a villain in my city."

[And I'm not about to take on the Empire without knowing you aren't going to leave me hanging if something goes wrong in the process. This won't be the first time I've infiltrated a villainous organization, but again, I'm not about to try unless I know you aren't going to screw me over. The PRT makes deals like this all the time. If they didn't they wouldn't have half as many capes as they do know. You think Assault was always a hero? Can you even call Shadow Stalker one? Giving me a free pass to commit minor crimes in order to take down the largest team of villains in the city, is a bargain.]

He remained silent, hopefully contemplating my points.

"Fine we have a deal."

[No, not yet. I told you what I require to do you a favor, now you are going to do one for me.]

"I just agreed to give you amnesty Monarch."

[No that's a stipulation of how I'll take them down, but I don't get anything out of it. If I wasn't going to go after them, then I wouldn't need amnesty to begin with. You want me to run this mission, I'll need to be getting something out of it.]

"What do you want then?"

I had to think quickly. I had wanted amnesty for the bank job. I was going to lie and say I was infiltrating the Undersiders, but his favor worked out a little better for me. Now though I had to find a better reason to have called him down here.

[I need you to investigate a ward.]

"The one you think works for this secret organization? I'm not buying that."

[No, this one is a probationary member, and one that is breaking her probation. She tried to kill me. I won't go into the details, but I'm not too happy that you have a member in the Wards with so little regard for a human life. I'd advise you be discreet. She isn't terribly bright, but that doesn't mean she won't think something is up if you randomly confiscate her phone. Ask Dragon to do a check on her if you don't have the time.]

"That is a serious accusation. You realize what this will mean for her if this is true."

[I just told you she tried to murder me. Do you think I'm going to feel guilty if she is punished? Furthermore, in all our talks, would you think I wouldn't know what her punishment would be if this were true. Where she found guilty, she would be spending the next several years in medium security prison, seeing a mandatory therapist, and be under careful scrutiny were she ever released. I am fully aware of the punishment she would be facing for attempted murder.]

He stood there appraising me for a moment. I had to take stock of myself. I realized I was panting. Not for being short of breath, my bugs were my voice. No, I was getting worked up over both reliving the atrocities Sophia did to me, and Armsmaster asking me if I knew what would happen to Sophia if she really had tried to kill me, as if to bully me into keeping quiet about what she did to me. I was glad my bugs couldn't convey my tone.

"Fine I can look into this personal matter for you. 'll do you that favor."

[Good, then we are done here,] I finished, not wanting to get into a further drawn out conversation with Armsmaster. It was nice to be the one dismissing him, but he didn't seem to be moving.

[Something else you wanted to discuss.]

"The name."

[The name.]

"Of the agent in the PRT. You said you could out one of them if I wanted. You will already have me investigating Shadow Stalker, it will be more efficient if I can deal will both investigations at once."

[Battery.]

"Battery," he repeated, sounding out the name as if he had never heard the word before. "If this turns out to be some wild goose chase," he replied, leaving the threat hanging in the air.

[Cauldron is the name of the organization, and I would advise being very discreet in your investigation and interrogations. The don't abide by any rules, written or otherwise. They have the most powerful capes in the world at their disposal and have used them to keep their organization secret. Be careful Armsmaster.]

He gave my clone a long look before leaving. I waited till I could no longer hear his bike before I emerged from my hiding spot. This wasn't quite how I wanted this conversation to go, but it would do. Taking down the Empire? It was something on my list of things to do anyway, but now Armsmaster was the one expecting me to do so, and he would be keeping tabs on me now. Not something I wanted, but then again, not something I couldn't handle.

I also had him digging through Sophia's indiscretions. Hopefully Dragon would help out. Armsmaster might be dick enough to excuse some of her actions, but Dragon had at least been programed with a heart to know how to deal with this situation. I could only hope Armsmaster would ask for her to help.

With that taken care of, I set off for home. Tomorrow I would rob a bank.


	12. Mandible 2-3

2.3 Mandibles

My morning was spent preparing. I convinced Brian to rent the vans for the day and early in the morning. I used the opportunity to expand my collecting range to areas I had not been previously. Focusing on collecting more black widow spiders, I repeated the process of collecting that I'd used on my morning runs. Namely, having the spiders mate, lay eggs at a height, then enter into the truck. Given the speed of the truck and my still limited range of a block and change radius, I had to pass by the areas several times before the spiders were done with their tasks. The trick was making sure to return in time to ensure the males were not eaten. I found that if I fed the females first, the males were more likely to survive. Once they were done, I brought them down to the van with bees, wasps, flies, and other filers.

Once I had them in the van, the spiders set to work. At my prime as Weaver, working for the PRT I had several billion black widows producing spider silk bodysuits. I made them in varying sizes, but nothing really custom, except for my active team members in the Chicago Wards. In the van, I had them weave right on me, so this new suite would be a perfect fit, as skin tight as skin tight can get. I had started them on my left foot, leaving my right foot to drive, then switching feet when they had at least a sock.

My current costume had padding in the feet to give me traction and cushioning. I was debating whether to do the same here. I could opt for chitin boots, giving me greater protection on my feet, and making them into a weapon if I tipped the toes, or I could stay light and agile, like my current costume. Most of the bodysuits I had made for the PRT were to act as an underlayer, being the last line of defense for capes with armor, or simply a modesty cover for the capes that were their own armor. I had only ever made chitin armor for Brian and myself. Rachel only ever had the jacket, Lisa wanted to keep the skintight bodysuit, Alec too used it as an underlay with his loose renfair attire overtop. I was considering how to improve their costumes when I got around to making theirs.

For Lisa, I would be making a full face mask. When Jack cut her mouth open, he took away her greatest weapon against him. Really any cape that could shut her up, could effectively neutralized her power. I was considering taking a page from Alec's mask, which had foam padding around the mouth that protected from impact, but still allowed him to speak. I was also considering giving Lisa a full helmet with speakers and an earpiece. I wanted to set all of us up with a wireless communications system for use in the field. I had in mind for Lisa's to be a bit more advanced, able to talk to us without alerting our enemy. Brian could have the same thing. My swarm and swarm speak gave me the same abilities. Rachel would need her face free to whistle to her dogs. Alec could also make use of the system, if I ever got it up and running. I might need help with the wiring and programing, but there were enough tech geeks for hire without even having to use a tinker.

All of this would cost money, but for now I had a backer who already had some of this gear on hand. Sadly, I was still waiting for much of this gear to arrive, but I had been paid. It would have been poor form for me not to have been paid my signing bonus before I was sent out on a job. The $350,000 would help grease the wheels with Blasto. I wanted to keep him paid and happy, mostly to keep him out of trouble. He was vital to my plans, and if he was wanting for money or projects, he might just find himself in a bit of trouble. I had already fucked things up with Accord and was waiting for the other shoe to drop. I didn't expect it to drop on Blasto, but Accord might have some plan where attacking him directly could get him in his services eventually. It would be a concern, but the bug harvesting and upcoming bank job kept me from getting too distracted.

During my driving and planning, my spiders managed to get to my calves before I arrived back at the loft. There I traded out for the ones I had kept on the ground floor, adding nearly a thousand from the first run, and about the same on each of my subsequent nine runs before I had to stop to prepare for the bank job.

By the time I had finished my runs, I had a new set of leggings finished and another 10,000 spiders to add to my warehouse. The trick would be keeping them alive. While present, I could keep them from eating one another. Gone, or asleep was another issue. 11,000 black widows was overpopulation for a single warehouse. It was overpopulation for a single block even. I spread the spent ones out, feeding them on the useless bugs that had also been collected. They headed out, spreading evenly over my block radius, going up and down, and when even that was too dense, I walked outside, bringing them a further block in each direction before I felt comfortable leaving them to their own devices.

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To say I was nervous, was an understatement. So many things seemed off. I couldn't find Dinah anywhere. I had been checking my phone driving around in the morning and hadn't received any missed calls or messages. Not from Dinah and crew, not from Cauldron, nor from Blasto. Dinah and crew weren't supposed to call unless it was an emergency. Cauldron I was worried about. I had assumed Accord would have passed along the message, if nothing else than to get an idea of who he was dealing with. Then again, maybe not. Blasto, I didn't really know how long it would take him to make what I needed. The bugs I didn't really need just yet. I wouldn't be facing off a serious threat for a while. Even still, I was worried about him.

Lisa had noticed my mood, but refrained from commenting. I thought on the change from my own time. Lisa had seen I was nervous then too, but tried comforting me. Here she seemed content to sit. No not really content, more like she seemed uncomfortable with the idea of talking.

"You mentioned yesterday that facing off against Lung is a lot riskier," I interjected into the silence

"A lot."

"Why?"

Lisa turned to look at me with a smile on her face, but I could see in her eyes a bit of hesitation. I knew this to be one of her favorite topics, but her hesitation worried me.

"Think of it as a game, a high stakes variant of cops and robbers. Grown adults running around in costume. Making up code names for themselves. It's ridiculous, and we know it's ridiculous, even if we don't admit it out loud. So there's capes like you and me, where we go out in costume and it's fun. Maybe we have some agenda or goals," she said, pausing to gauge my reaction.

"But at the end of the day, we're getting our thrills, blowing off steam and living a second life. Then there's the crazies. The people who are fucked up in the head, maybe dangerous if there's not something or someone to help keep them in line. The people who take it all too seriously, or those guys you wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of, even if they didn't have powers. Lung, Oni Lee, Heartbreaker," she paused again. "Bitch."

"And then there are the S Class Threats," I added. "The soulless motherfuckers who just want to watch the world burn. The Slaughterhouse Nine, Nilbog, Sleeper, and the Endbringers."

"Right," Lisa started again, but with even more hesitation than before. "But you have to understand, ninety percent of what goes on when you're in costume? It's the first group…" she finished, tailing off.

"The Endbringers?" she asked after her pause.

"The Slaughterhouse 9?" Another pause.

"Nilbog?"

"Sleeper?" Her eyebrows shot up after the last name.

I turned to face her and saw that she was turning pale.

"All of them? All the known S class threats?"

"And several more you and the public are not aware of yet," I added. "But those are my agendas, and none of those are anything you need to worry about right now. What worries me right now is why our boss really has us pulling this bank job. The reasons you gave me in the loft are all bullshit and you know it. So why is he really having us pull this job?"

She was still distracted by the six S class threats she now knew were part of my 'agenda'.

"Focus T. We are at the bank we are about to rob. Coil has us pulling this job for more than just the money. Why? What is he after?"

She visibly brought her attention back to the here and now. I could see the effort it took her to reign in her power from such a monumental, earth shattering piece of information, to redirect on something far less interesting, though far more important right now. She looked at me, finally coming back to the present and looked… sheepish?

I raised an eyebrow behind my mask.

"Ok, so you know how you asked me to look into info on those two names?" At my nod she continued. "Well, he gave me a list too. This one was a lot longer, but was basically a list of Medhal employees. He also gave me instructions to keep quiet about it, as in not you, nor anyone else on our team can know about this."

"So he wants to take down the Empire," I mused aloud. I was more surprised the bank job played a part in that. It wasn't until weeks later that he used any of the information. I knew there was still more to this job, Dinah had been proof of that enough. We might still be pulling the job for the reasons Lisa mentioned, but I was still nervous there was something else going on.

"So why tell me now then?" I asked.

"Cause you said you would help me with that little problem."

"I mean, why are you telling me this now, before we pull the job as opposed to earlier this morning."

"He told me right before we left the loft. I was gonna tell you, it was just hard to break the silence, you seemed to be in a bad mood and I didn't want to set you off."

"I'm not in a bad mood. Ok, I am but that isn't directed at you. Well, it is a little now, but I'm not gonna do anything more than be upset with you. I'm not some crazy cape that goes around executing their teammates when they fail, or ship my adversaries off to the CUI when I disagree with them. I don't want you to be afraid to disagree with me."

"Really? 'Cause I tried pushing your buttons in front of the rest of the team once before. Do you remember what you said then?"

"Yeah, I told you not to fuck with me. That's a lot different than us having a disagreement. That was you putting me in a tricky position."

"I was doing you a favor. Did you see the way Brian was smiling at you, rattling off all that information on the local capes?"

I blushed a bit behind my mask. Stupid hormones.

"A thank you would be nice," she smirked, letting me know she wasn't too upset.

"Thanks for that T. I appreciate the gesture, but in the future, please keep my secrets as just that. Secret."

"Aw you're no fun."

"Sure I am."

"Prove it."

I simply smiled as my bugs finished moving into position. Sitting in the vans in the rain, my bugs were less noticeable in their advances into the bank. I had moved the local bugs to congregate in the walls of the bank. After prepositioning them near the cameras, I flashed the vans lights, signaling Brian, Alec, and Rachel, aka Grue, Regent, and Bitch.

"Ready to rob a bank?" I asked Tattletale. Her grin was all the answer I needed.

I hopped out into the rain, bringing my swarm with me from the back of the van. I kept a quarter of the useful bugs I had collected on me, the ones more susceptible to the rain. The rest I divided up and spread them out about the street. We had only had to deal with Glory Girl inside the bank last time. The others were content to take us on the street, so I made sure I had some out there.

I brought up the roaches I had been gathering in the storm drain and set them lining up along several escape paths. It would serve to lessen Vista's powers, were she to show up. My new butterflies were holding fast to me, not having the strength to fly in the rain, nor with the cloud cover. I had other flying bugs providing me with cover.

I looked upon the six story bank. The stone edifice was topped with crenelation on the roof and balconies. Gargoyles guarded the corners, and iron grilles protected the windows. I knew the front would have a grand entrance, with wide stone stairs and status of wild horses. We were entering through the back, so as not to cause direct alarm to the customers.

Grue approached us, covered in his darkness. Regent followed behind with Bitch and her pony-sized dogs bringing up the rear. The camera that pointed at the door and panel we were facing was covered by my bugs. Eventually people might start catching on that this meant trouble, but for now, if anyone was watching the screens, they would be more annoyed with the bugs, than worried this was an attack. I had bugs positioned at all the major cameras that could track our movement. Those were holding back until they were needed. If I covered all the cameras at once, who ever operated them would be able to guess something was up and sound the alarm that much sooner.

Tattletale got to work on the keypad, giving the same explanation and code as the first time around.

"... Voila. Try it." she finished.

I pulled on the door, walking headlong into the space, unconcerned with Grue's hesitation or hand signals. Walking down the corridor I signaled the rooms with people and counted of their numbers. Two here, none here, three here, and another two there…

I waited as Grue and Regent set about collecting them. They dragged them back out to the hallway, marching them in front of two of the dogs, but behind the third. I didn't concern myself with the civilians we had in toe. From the moment we entered the building, we were facing cape involvement. I was covering cameras as we progressed, while reaching out and gathering my swarms in the buildings across the street.

We finished clearing the offices and were approaching the main lobby. Grue stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.

"I know you are new to the team thing, but if I give you a signal to wait, you wait. Understood?"

I nodded, realizing I was forgetting that they weren't the same team I had pulled jobs with just yet. I was used to taking point, given that my bugs gave me a huge tactical advantage on the battlefield. Here and now, Grue was also still in charge, and was working with a virtual unknown.

"Good. Now, you know what to do," he said.

Grue set his darkness into the room followed by my bugs. The workers we had in tow were held back, to be used for another purpose. The cameras were covered by my bugs, but the darkness would make them a moot point while we operated. I had located the alarms and addressed those the same way I dealt with Accords defenses. With bugs having been covertly entering the building while we sat outside, I had every employee marked, along with every customer before we even entered the building. There were many upstairs on the upper floors we had never even bothered with the first time we robbed this bank. They were as unimportant now as they were before.

Walking into the main lobby, Grue and I corralled the people there to the nearest windows, which we had left partially uncovered. The people there were scared, but not panicked. We made sure to spread them out this time. We had messed up last time, keeping them bunched up, as it let Panacea go unnoticed till it was already too late. With civilians visible at the windows, it would also serve to keep the heroes from just charging in, something that would have been helpful against Glory Girl.

With the ground floor sorted, we enacted the next part of the plan. The bugs collected to the center of the room, leaving enough to keep track of the 'hostages'. The darkness was consolidated, and thats when the scared civilians started to panicked. Standing in the center of the room were four monsters. Three were dog shaped, but car sized. The fourth was something that should terrify both capes and civilians. Standing still like a statue, but at over fifteen feet tall, a humanoid wraith looked upon those gathered. Its edges were blurred and the body was blacker than night. Glowing eyes flickered on and off on its face, like blinking eyes. The screams from those gathered were enough to startle the dogs, who barked and growled ferociously, doing little to settle the already terrified crowd.

The form, I had worked on with Grue earlier. My bugs were there to give definition, creating the framework for Grue to fill with his darkness. It allowed a larger mass with less bugs. The trouble we had was with coordinating and maintaining the form where Grue couldn't see it. He couldn't feel his darkness like I could with my bugs. The other drawback was movement. With my bugs hovering in place, he could keep his darkness up. Whenever we tried moving, it took a while before he could get his smoke to settle just right. The darkness trails from the body were cool, but when I moved too fast, or in ways Grue didn't see, the illusion failed, showing a bug frame, hollow on the inside. Still scary, but I had other reasons for wanting to place the wraith here than for crowd control.

The other drawback was that it required Grue to be here, maintaining his darkness. I was still free to move about, and had followed the rest of the group to the vault door. Through my bugs spread about the room I gave my command.

[Stay where I placed you and no harm will come to you.]

I didn't need to tell them the 'or else'. Looking upon a wraith, darkness descending from his body, no one moved. There were those who openly wept. Others stood frozen. One girl about my size fainted at the sight, collapsing to the ground. I had other things to worry about. The seven employes we had in tow were my responsibility. I kept them in my sights, not that I needed to, but because I didn't want it known yet that I didn't need to.

Tattletale got to work on the door while I stood guard over the employees. The handgun holstered at my waist deterred them from doing anything stupid. It was odd really, my powers were far more dangerous than a handgun, but I guess they understood what the gun could do better than the bugs. Taking these employees hostage like this, had been my idea, and so I was in charge of them.

It took a few minutes for Tattletale to get the vault open, but when she did, I nudged the employees forward. They were reluctant at first, but when Bitch called over Brutus, they scrambled ahead of the car sized dog.

"You four will collect money into these bags," I said tossing them the canvas bags we had been supplied for this job.

"You three," I said, indicating the remaining three employees, "will start opening the filing cabinets and safety deposit boxes and fill these bags," I said, handing the biggest one a crowbar and indicating the filing cabinets lining the wall opposite the stacks of money. "Don't be a hero. That crowbar won't be effective against me," I said tapping my chitin facemask, "And the dogs would only think its a chew toy," I finished, looking at Brutus.

Bitch scowled at my comment but didn't turn to look from where she was strapping the rigging to the dog in question. Brutus turned his head our way and growled, emphasizing my point.

I stood there for a minute for the 'minions' to start working. They were bagging money, but slowly. They took a few tries getting the first file drawer open. Regent and Bitch started grabbing some of the money but I stopped them.

"No, you two are overseers. Let the bank workers do the grunt work. Conserve your strength for the capes when they come."

Regent hopped back up on a stack of money that wasn't being packed up and started twirling his scepter. Bitch just grunted and dropped the bag she had started to fill. Satisfied, I left the room to check in with Tattletale.

I found her typing madly on a computer in the senior managers office.

"We don't leave until you're done," I said.

"Right. Pressure is on."

"Not what I meant. I mean we will stand our ground until you are done."

She paused to look up at me.

"That important?" she asked.

I didn't reply, only turning back to the vault where I could feel something starting with my bugs. Walking into the room, I could see what I had already felt, four employees bagging money, one employee struggling with the second filing cabinet, and the other two just standing around, waiting for the second cabinet to be opened.

Walking into the room I drew my taser and used it on the back of the man working on the cabinet. The employe collapsed to the ground with a sigh. I picked up his crowbar and opened the door myself. I threw my full weight against the bar, not wanting to have to struggle, nor look to weak in front of the other 'minions'. The screech of metal indicated the drawer opening. I turned back to the two taskless employes and tossed the nearest the crowbar.

"Don't fuck with us," I said, stepping over their downed co-worker. Regent merely cocked his head, looking at the scene from atop the stack of bills he was perched on. Bitch looked at me toe to tip. I stood my ground as she appraised me. She grunted to herself then turned to take the first full sack.

After what I did to the first employee, his fellows worked with renewed vigor. The bags filled quickly, with Bitch calling Judas, followed by Angelica shortly after.

It was when we were loading the last bag that I felt Tattletale jump.

"White hats are here, I still need another five minutes," she called out, paging the phone nearest to me from the managers office. It was still eiry sometimes to be around her power. This was one of those times.

[Take your time. They won't come in the bank, not with the civilians pressed up against the windows. I'll give the others the heads up though. Who do we have.] I tried asking through my bugs. Everything just came out monotone, without any inflection or indication I was asking a question.

"We have Aegis, Vista, Browbeat, and Shadowstalker. They also have a flyer on the roof, Gallant or Kidwin maybe?"

[Noted,] I replied, so thankful that my bugs couldn't carry inflection for my response. Kidwin, Gallant, and Clockblocker were nowhere in sight. Neither were Panacea, nor Glory Girl. The five Wards would not be a difficult fight for us. Hearing Aegis was here though, sent off all kinds of alarms in my mind. Two possibilities were running through my mind. One would mean doom. The other, assured success. It all hinged on who was really behind that mask.

"We will be leaving shortly. Bitch, your priority is getting the dogs out with haul. Regent, keep a sharp eye. We have an unknown cape on the roof. Aegis, Vista, Shadow Stalker, and Browbeat are on the ground. I'll give the heads up when we are to move."

"I can take them. Just have Grue let me go all out," Bitch replied, eyes focusing more intently on me.

"No need. We have a plan for escape, and getting the money out is higher priority than starting a fight." Putting action to words, I started moving my bugs into position.

"Coward," she called out, as I walked out to the main hall to Grue.

"Capes are here, we need to get moving now. And you were right about Browbeat." he said, having seen their arrival through the windows.

"We need more time loading the money," I lied. "We had issues with one of the employees."

Grue looked at me hard.

"I took care of him. He won't be causing us any problems, and neither will the Wards outside. They seem content to wait in the rain, I'm content to wait in here. We have hostages along the windows. They can't even enter without putting them at risk."

"You calling the shots then?" He asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

"Merely letting you know where we stand, and what I expect our opponents to do," I replied.

"Thanks, sorry it's just weird with you here now," he finished, not realizing exactly what he said. I stood there a bit, waiting for him to get it.

He didn't.

He seemed more focused on the wraith that was positioned facing out, towards the street and the Wards.

Turning to look outside at the capes, I saw a face that gave me pause. Pressed against the wall, wrapped in his mother's arms, was Aiden. His face had tears streaking down his cheeks, and his eyes were red and puffy. His mother noticed my stares and pulled him closer to her.

I looked away, not wanting to worry her. I found myself lost in thought… Aiden had lost his mother and possibly his father, having to stay with me and Charlotte in my lair after the Leviathan attack. Could I do anything to change that? I couldn't warn them, not outright. I could make them flee. Threaten them. It would make me a monster, but I had already accepted I might be labeled one with what I had planned.

My musings were cut off as a bolt shot through the window and pierced my 'head', killing bugs, among them a firefly I was using to create glowing eyes.


	13. Mandible 2-4

2.4 Mandible

The bolt shot through my 'head' passing through mostly darkness, but killing one of my fireflies on its exit. No one inside the bank even noticed its passing. The wraith decoy was doing its job, taking the hits that might otherwise be directed at us. I focused my attention outside to where Shadow Stalker was arguing with Aegis. I couldn't yet tell what they were saying, but from what I could see, Shadow Stalker seemed to be ignoring Aegis, while he continued to yell. She reloaded her crossbow and started moving forward.

[Shadow Stalker incoming. Aegis, Vista and Browbeat may follow shortly,] I called out with my bugs to my team. Regent and Bitch had the strongest reactions, as they had yet to hear my bugs speak.

Tattletale said something then tapped her watch.

[I'll delay,] I replied, speaking only to her.

[Be ready to head out in five,] I stated to the group, though being careful to keep Grue from hearing the last part. I needed Tattletale to get that information for the next part of my plans.

"Grue we have Shadow Stalker taking pot shots at Wraith," I whispered, not wanting to let on to the civilians that the heroes were here yet. "Time for phase two?" I asked, remembering his earlier discomfort at me taking the lead.

"Right, you got your bugs on the ground?"

"Yep, just take the path of least resistance."

"Right," Grue finished, stretching out his power towards the front door. His darkness extended through the cracks in the frames, billowing like smoke out over the steps and onto the street.

The Wards had taken notice and were repositioning themselves. Vista took the lead and moved to extend her powers over the area. The darkness stopped in some areas and slowed in others. Then something unexpected happened. The puddles on the ground began turning black. Worse, the dark puddles seemed to be spreading rapidly. Vista stepped up her power, trying to spread the ground out, but found her abilities muted. My roaches had covered the street in a single biological mass, nullifying Vista's powers which couldn't break the Manton Effect.

Grue's darkness was spreading rapidly across the road, gaining on the local Wards. I brought a swarm of bugs up in a grid right behind Vista. She stepped back right into them, perhaps thinking of getting some distance. She instead took a single, human step back. I didn't get to see the look of shock on her face when she realized she was trumped. She still wore a mask with colors matching her white and forest green swooping lined costume. The skirt and breastplate were the same as before. Two years from now she still wouldn't be filling out that breastplate. Short and scrawny, I could have beat her ass without powers or training. The trick would be getting close, and now with her way blocked off by bugs, she would be vulnerable if we entered the fray.

My musings were cut off as she turned and bolted through my swarm. She might have thought she could escape, but I had several thousand bugs designated solely to hindering her movements. Flies, no-see-ums, mosquitos, and gnats filled the space around her in a dense enough grid that she couldn't warp more than a foot of space around her. They were loosely gathered so that, in the constant rain, they were indistinguishable from an area with a patch of heavier rain. Covering all of her exits in the grid, she had nowhere she could run that would free her from the constraints my bugs placed on her.

The other Wards weren't idle either. Shadow Stalker had climbed up a light post, getting clear of the darkness, and looking for it's source. Browbeat and Aegis had also scrambled back. That Aegis didn't just take to the air, was all the tell I needed. I had been gathering a massive swarm just for him. I was holding them off though, for just the right moment to strike.

With Vista fleeing for some space to maneuver, she had let go her control of the area of Grue's darkness. It now moved freely, covering the whole of the area in front of the bank and rising to be just over head high. Building up into a solid mass in front of the capes, I reworked my bugs to form the frame again. Grue filled it with his darkness from the ground up. The bugs were more important here than in the bank. Were they not there, Vista could warp the shadows, and then the whole charade would be over. This way, if she ever escaped my bug cage, she couldn't do much to fight it.

Before the wraith was halfway formed, Shadow Stalker was already firing bolts at it. Aegis shouted at her again, but she either didn't hear, or wasn't listening. She landed three shots before this new wraith even had a head. Her bolts flew fast and hard, but didn't even manage to kill any of my bugs in the wraith. I still had my roaches covering the ground and a few of those did die, but they were all expendable.

"The fuck?" Bitch asked, emerging from the vault with Angelica and Regent.

They would have been told to send the employees running out the back wearing the one piece painters suits and the party masks I had brought. I had taken a page from Jack and Bonesaw with that last one. They would serve to draw out whatever cape was on the roof. I had worried they might get hurt, but the Wards were trained in less than lethal tactics, and apart from Shadow Stalker and Glory Girl, would use restraint until they had an understanding of who they were coming up against. Shadow Stalker was already accounted for. Glory Girl had Panacea to clean up her messes if she got too rough.

"What took you so long?" Grue asked, not looking away from the now ensuing fight.

Browbeat was leaping from car tops at the wraith, taking swings that just passed through it without seeming to have any effect. Each time he landed on a car just above the edges of the darkness. He seemed to be careful about not stepping in it, but was comfortable jumping through the darkness of the Wraith? It seemed contradictory.

Grue was left reworking the construct to keep its definition. The mass displaced by Browbeat was enough to keep Grue focused outside for the time being. I was simultaneously monitoring the civilians, the rest of the Undersiders, scanning the area for any new capes that might enter the fray, keeping Vista in a bug cage, and moving swarms to deal with Shadow Stalker and Aegis when we needed to leave.

"We were told to 'be ready to head out in five'. I didn't think that meant we would be missing out on a fight. We could have been here sooner," Regent supplied.

"No rush. The Wards are occupied. What happened with the minions?" I asked, having no trouble holding up one conversation, while managing my bugs.

Grue looked ready to say something, but the Wards were changing tactics and he had to refocus.

"Nothing. We sent them running out the back. We lost sight of them as they rounded a corner. I didn't see any capes flying around or anything."

"We might still have one on the roof then," I replied.

Grue meanwhile was struggling to maintain his wraith form. Part of our strategy was nullifying the heavy hitters fast, then interrupting their chain of command. Aegis would be the current leader with Clockblocker as his replacement. Vista would be the next target as the most experienced member on the team. It just worked out that their main leaders were also their most effective weapons against us. It meant that we only had to trap the two for the team to essentially crumble. Grue's darkness would serve that purpose, but I had contingencies in place if things got bad.

"Why aren't we out there fighting?" Bitch asked.

"Because we don't need to. We can let the Wards run around in the rain, tiring themselves out. The Protectorate is too far outside the city and won't be here anytime soon. New Wave won't intervene with the Wards already here."

"So why are we still here? We need to get moving and soon."

[T, Regent and Bitch are here with the dogs. Two minutes before they start getting suspicious. Wrap up what you are doing and head up here.]

She nodded, still not getting up though. She had plugged in an external hard drive since the last time I had talked to her. I placed a bug on it to keep tabs.

"We were waiting for you. Where is Tatteltale?" Grue asked, glancing at us briefly just to make sure he hadn't missed her.

_Well so much for two minutes._

"She should be along shortly, she said she was going to see if the manager had a secondary safe."

"Why wasn't this part of the plan to begin with? We would have accounted for her searching."

"You know T. She gets an idea in her head…" I trailed off, looking pointedly at the surrounding civilians, still in ear shot.

"Right. Powers," Regent supplied.

"You should have mentioned this earlier. Now we are stuck waiting for her. Regent, go with Monarch and get her. We might have to go toe to toe with the Wards soon. I don't know how much longer the wraith will keep them busy."

"No need, I can feel her. I'll signal her to meet us out here."

[T time to go now. No threat, but I had to tell them you were seeing if the manager had a secondary safe.] I said, making sure she knew the lie if asked.

She nodded and ejected the external hard drive. I kept tabs on her as she made her way down to the lobby.

During our conversations, I was still managing the fight outside.

With Vista on the retreat, and Shadow Stalker shooting at the emerging wraith, Aegis seemed to be struggling in inaction, he tried stepping on the darkness a couple times, swiping his hand through it, though nothing seemed to happen to him, nor the darkness. That would be changing, but I was waiting for the right moment.

Browbeat had taken a different approach. He grabbed a car and threw it into the darkness. It passed through unharmed, until it hit the asphalt. Then it actually bounced once before coming to rest. He then jumped onto it before making a beeline for the front entrance. He almost made it out past the darkness in a final leap, but not before I had my bugs strike. It was something I was already working on, though my intention for it was a little different.

A line of spider silk tied him to the lamppost Shadow Stalker was perched on. It pulled him down short, landing hard in the darkness.

Shadow Stalker lost her grip as the pole gave a violent shudder. She must have phased, because the bugs I had on her had to take to the air to keep from free falling. They followed her scent, staying with her as she glided to the ground, managing to get off another shot before she landed on the ground.

I could feel Browbeat get up and try turning around. He had snapped the line, but I discretely tied another to him. I left enough slack like I had when he was leaping from car to car, and keeping flies on the line to keep it unobstructed. Grue raised the height of the darkness where Browbeat was, and kept it up. Browbeat tried leaping up out over the darkness but wasn't clearing the new height Grue set. He was neutralized for the time being.

By now Aegis had realized how ineffectual he was. The bugs I had placed on him felt him bring his phone out. He had a call on the other line. I could interrupt him, but doing so would give away my countermeasures. That, and I didn't want to have another moving target to latch onto.

Vista had her phone in hand too now. That I had missed. I hadn't had any bugs on her hands, only her torso. Her powers didn't rely on her hands, so I had ignored them. She seemed to be either following Aegis' commands or someone elses because I could feel something odd with the bugs around her. The ones I had placed on her were getting further and further away. It was odd given that they were getting further from all the bugs I had around her. She was creating distance around herself despite my grid of bugs. Well, she was still contained to operate solely in her little bubble, so no issues there.

Browbeat was wearing himself out, having managed to free himself by pure dumb luck. The car he threw into the darkness let him get a better jumping point, and had leapt diagnally, clearing the darkness. He then resumed jumping up to tackle the wraith. It looked like it was effective only because the from was disrupted each time and took more focus to return to it's more defined state. That was more on Grue than me. It didn't limit his abilities, it just took him time to reshape the wraith. Longer than it took Browbeat to hit the ground, turn, and jump again.

An explosion drew all our attention outside. My bugs died en masse at the point closest to Vista, with more surviving the further from her they were. Those survivors though, were blasted far back giving her ample room to maneuver her abilities. Well this could be a problem.

"Shit! Where the hell is Tattletale?" Grue swore.

"Here!" She replied, making her way quickly to the main room we were gathered in.

"Where the hell-"

"Argue later. It's time to move the rest of the civilians," I stated, cutting Grue off.

Vista had full mobility now after her little detonation. Even my bugs on the ground had been blasted away. They were taking too long to close her off again and she was putting in countermeasures to my bugs. Micro blasts and vacuums were causing havoc with their movements, keeping me from containing her again.

"We will talk about this later," Grue growled out.

"Everyone on your feet! Move towards the front door but stay inside!" I shouted to the civilians.

They did so but grudgingly. I could care less if they resented me so long as they complied. They might never know it, but in the long run, this would be saving their lives.

"When you get outside, run towards Vista. If you find yourself covered in darkness, drop to the ground and assume the fetal position! Now GO!"

They burst from the front entrance, running down the stairs, and straight to Vista. The reaction of the Wards was delayed. They had their full focus on beating an enemy that seemed to weather all attacks and nullify Vista's powers. It was Aegis who first noticed them as they made it down to the street, charging Vista, through a path clear of darkness.

Grue was just starting to shroud the stragglers as the rest of the Wards took action, reacting first to Aegis shouting a heads up. Shadow Stalker gave a moment's consideration before resuming shooting despite the lack of effect. Browbeat turned, and in his moment of confusion, I applied my best lines of string to him.

Vista changed tactics to securing the civilians, closing the distance between herself and them with her powers. Unfortunately for her, she was also closing the distance to her doom. With the civilians, I had several select bugs being carried to her. Vista, still with her phone to her ear, redirected the crowd that approached her. The first few now crossing the street to move far to her left. They all still tried to converge on her, which gave her a big surprise. Moving away from the crowd that now nearly circled her, she had to step back. That put her closer to my grid that was still working to close in on her. She was hemmed in again, though this time by civilians to one side, which would block her from intercepting us when we fled East to the bay.

With her close enough now to the rest of my swarm, I struck, using bugs to strike at her front. She jumped back again, creating a defensive wall of altered space in front of her. With that last step, she was in range of my swarm, which set to wrapping a single line of string to her ankle.

"Now Grue," I said to him.

He had a tendril of darkness massing a blob near Aegis. He brought it forth, with my swarm adding mass. Aegis had time to turn and utter a weak cry of protest before he was covered in darkness and bugs. My bugs swarmed him, covering him from head to toe but leaving his face exposed. Unlike last time, he couldn't freeze them in place by spinning. They had made their way under his borrowed costume well before any even tried biting or stinging. Masked by the darkness, I tied off the last of the lines from the rest of the Wards to Clockblocker posing as Aegis.

All at once they attacked, biting and stinging while others forced themselves into all his orifices. He pushed out and froze all of them en masse. It might not have even been a conscious choice on his part but a reaction to the pain he would be feeling from all directions. I could feel his power spreading as bugs that weren't even on him began freezing. Flies I had holding spider silk above ground disappeared from me in an outward direction from Clockblocker. Each line of spider silk was tied from him to one of the other Wards. I had tried a similar trick against Echidna to cut her in half. Here I was using it to freeze each of the Wards.

Shadow Stalker was nearest and was the first. Freezing in a solid state on the flag pole, having climbed back up there after being knocked down. Vista followed second, having moved too close to Clockblocker in a vain attempt to escape my civilian and bug countermeasures. Browbeat was the last, still standing beneath the wraith, having placed himself between it and the civilians, perhaps thinking to shield them from it. A valiant gesture but utterly futile.

I had one last thing to take care of before we departed. With Clockblocker frozen, I brought out a last surprise for him. I had remembered a comment from Toggle during the Slaughterhouse 9,000 hunt. She had said that 'Clocksie had a thing for me.' Clockblocker said some 'dingbat online' got the rumor started and it was hard for him to put it down. I didn't really want to hurt his career, but I did want the group destabilized until I had control of the city. Getting a rose from a villain, after freezing your team, when you were supposed to be team leader, resulting in their escape, would atleast raise a few eyebrows.

I had thought to leave a kiss mark on his mask. But with my actual lips, it would be moronic. It would leave saliva and lip imprints that could be linked to me if I were captured. The dumber end of that would be that he would be fully capable of freezing me with my lips on his mask. His immobility was a result of having frozen the bugs on him, giving him no room to maneuver. He was still breathing, albeit shallowly.

I thought next that I might just use a stamp of a kiss, and use my bugs to press it on. I couldn't do it myself or I'd run into the same problems of being frozen. Practice during my bug collection had helped, but I had decided to do something else.

I had been putting together this swarm of bugs for a while, tying lines from the flyers to my little gift. A single red rose was carried out in the rain a placed in Clockblocker's half open hand. The flower nearly fell through, but the head of the rose was open enough to catch on his hand. It was a little less obvious than a kiss mark, but it would be harder to refute it being an actual gesture rather than a snub.

With the lot of them frozen, I followed the civilians out into the open. Grue made to grab me, but I moved my arm out of the way before he could. I stepped clear into the rain and turned back to them.

"Coast is clear," I said, with affected nonchalance.

"Damn," Tattletale injected, clearly impressed.

"What the hell did you do to them?" Grue asked, noting the rest of the Wards in their frozen states.

"I tricked Clockblocker into freezing the rest of the Wards."

"Seriously? Thats awesome! How did you, oh wait never mind we have to move now!" Tattletale said, before she started bolting to the vans.

"Time to go then," I said, following her out to the van Rachel drove here in.

Bitch whistled one sharp whistle to her dogs.

"Go home," she told them, pointing East.

They started off towards the bay. They managed three great bounds before the earth shattered before them. I hadn't had a chance to see or hear who or what might have caused it.

"T?" I called out to her.

She didn't have a chance to respond as the new cape burst forth, hurling Roxane at the car I was to be getting into, crushing it. Money and papers spilled out from the bags. I quickly sent my bugs to collecting them and carrying them to Tattletales' still working car. Many got soaked. Those I would give to Coil.

"YOU FUCKER! ATTACK!" Bitch cried, pointing right at Glory Girl.

Before her dogs could respond, Brutus had been hurled into Judas. I looked to the rest of the team. Alec looked to be ready to deflect once he got a clear view. Grue gathered darkness around him, enlarging himself; the Wraith was abandoned in a now swirling mass of darkness. Tattletale looked worried, being caught out in the open and now as the closest target. Bitch was livid, having seen all three of her dogs tossed aside so casually.

Glory Girl rose and exuded her powers on us as a group.

Fear. Raw primal fear coursed through my body. It brought me back to being in the locker again. The fear was even greater now than then. The locker was a mix of confusion. Here it was a result of powers directly affecting the mind.

My legs turned to jelly, and it was all I could do not to fall down. Having experienced fear worse than this before did little to protect me against this now. I was just as susceptible now as I was the first time she used her power on me. The difference was that though I was feeling unbridled fear, I wasn't worrying. It was working for me in a way. With great fear, comes greater range, and I was pushing the bounds of my powers through it all. I made it clear past a block and a half in the first few seconds, but the success diminished the fear a bit. I made sure not to lose myself in my swarm. Doing so would let me escape the fear, but wouldn't help expand my abilities.

I didn't sit idle though either. With my body nearly immobilized, I launched my bugs congregating on me. These were the rarest of the bugs in the city. They were my namesake and would serve as my icon in the coming months. Here and now they would cement my name. Soon enough, capes across the city would fear the butterfly.

The Monarch butterflies that had been giving my costume color, flew out into the rain. A great cloud of orange and black swarmed Glory Girl. It was no small task collecting them. Most of my morning, apart from collecting the black widow spiders, was spent searching for these bugs.

I could see her taking notice of them. Her power lessened as it drew her focus. She let them collect on her, a small smile playing on her face. Admittedly, it was probably a rather pleasant experience. At first.

She laughed out loud and the fear I was feeling diminished a bit.

"Really? Butterflies? What kind of shitty cape are you that you send out butterflies to attack me? You know they don't even have teeth right? What are they going to do? Cute me into oblivion?" she called out to me.

"Is your sister here Victoria?" I called back to her.

Her head snapped down at me with a glare and another full force of fear. I tried my hardest not to shake. Hard not to when she was intentionally focusing the full force of her fear powers at me. I pushed further with my powers, making it to two and half blocks.

"Even she won't be able to put you back together when I am done with you butterfly."

"It's Monarch, and I just want you to tell her I'm sorry."

"Sorry? You think she is going to give a damn if you're sorry after robbing a bank and attacking the local Heroes?"

"No, I just want her to know I'm sorry for having to do this," I said, drawing and firing a shot at Glory Girl. The bullet connected but ricocheted off. Her shields dropped and my bugs went to work.

Of the bugs I had requested from Coil, I had only received a handful. These twenty four were of the most useful. I had them carried over by the butterflies and positioned them in important areas. Her joints all had one on the outsides and one on the insides. Her ankles each had one. One was at the base of each butt cheek. Under her armpits and on her shoulders were also one apiece. I positioned two on her pelvic muscles, two inches below her waistline. The last two were placed on her collar bone.

All at once, I had my special order bullet ants attack.

One of my all time favorite freak outs to my bug attack was Velocity. Seeing a speedster flip out was highly entertaining. Glory Girl was different. Anyone unaccustomed to pain, feels it all the more sharply when they finally do. My bullet ants from Costa Rica are the most painful ant in the world, surpassing several other highly dangerous insect and snake species. At each of her joints, it would feel like being shot. The pain could last up to 48 hours, though I doubted it would last longer than it took Panacea to show up.

Glory Girl's first reaction was shock. That much pain all at once, and your brain reacts like it's misinformation. That is to say, that you don't react. Unfortunately for Glory Girl, that pain wasn't false messages being sent to her brain, and all too soon after the first bites, she felt it.

Incredulity. Confusion. Anger. But above all Pain. I could read these reactions on her face plain as day. She didn't wear a mask. She had been hovering 12 feet off the ground. In a split second she hit the ground, rolling on the asphalt, as if to put out a fire. She would be feeling that for a while. I didn't count her as out of the fight though. It would be too dangerous to pass by her and not expect her to lash out, even in her pain.

The dogs were just getting back on their feet. I rushed over to Tattletale and ushered her in the van that wasn't destroyed.

"Bitch! This way!" I shouted, indicating the alley that was our only route left available. Glory Girl was writhing on the ground to the East of us. The rest of the Wards were frozen to our West, but they could unfreeze at any time. The South was the Bank we had come from. North was our exit.

Grue mounted Judas with Regent. Bitch was on Brutus. Tattletale and I were in the last remaining Van. Darkness covered the block, uninterrupted by any of Vista's bubbles. Grue took the lead followed by Bitch and lastly me and Tattletale. I took a moment to collect the bullet ants on her. I wasn't likely to get many more of these any time soon and didn't want to waste them. I switched to fire ants to leave a last parting insult. Then I started the van and took off.

With my bugs on the others, I was able to follow them. At the speeds we were traveling, it wasn't that hard to get a feel for my surroundings. Were I on foot, I'd have bugs touching the surroundings. Now, in a van, we were moving too fast for the bugs to keep up. I had half a minute before the bugs that were entering my range were passing out of it. It wasn't long enough to get a great sense of my surroundings, but I could tell the difference between street and buildings well enough. Certain types of bugs didn't fly, and if I could feel those at eye level or above, it was good indication they were in or on a wall.

Moreover, following behind Grue, who could still see through his darkness, took some of the scary out of the trip. Riding in the van instead of on the dogs, also took some of the original thrill out of the getaway. The first time, I could remember it being one of the most exhilarating moments of my life. A happy moment.

This was less so. There was little joy, little excitement. Seeing Aiden, put me in an odd spot. I had plans that would put him at risk. I had to assume that events could change, and that just having been at the bank earlier than last time, would have consequences. All maner of changes could stem from this, like a stone dropped into a still pond, the effects would ripple out. It might mean he could survive with both his parents. It might mean none of them would survive. It was a sad thought that I could warn them to flee.

Hell I could warn everyone to flee. But then Leviathan might strike somewhere else. We knew the Endbringers gravitated towards conflict. The bombings, all out gang wars, and Noel, all had a hand in drawing him in. Chaos. And I would not only have to allow it, but cause some myself.

"So how did you know it was Clockblocker?" Tattletale asked, interrupting the silence we had been driving in. She still wore a full costume and had her makeup on. Smart, as we weren't out of the woods just yet.

"When Grue hit him with darkness, he tried touching it. Not punching, kicking, or flying over, but touching it. Aegis would have used different tactics, been more sure of commands. Did you see they had their phones out? They were being instructed by a third party."

"Piggot."

"Is that a guess or your power?"

"75% sure it was Piggot, 20% chance Armsmaster."

"And the last five?"

"Other. Could be I'm missing things. So how do you really know so much about the Wards? It's almost like you worked with them before…"

"I've only ever been a villain here."

"So where were you a Ward then?"

I glanced at her, not really needing to even look where I was going. She was giving me her typical vulpine grin.

"I can't tell you that," I said flatly.

"Oh come on, yes you can. I can even tell you can. You know I won't tell the rest of the gang, but even if I did, they would be more impressed that you turned to the darkside'."

I just looked at her, taking my eyes away from the 'road' entirely to focus on her. "Did you get the information I asked you to?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Yes everything we needed, now don't change the subject. Where were you a Ward before?"

"I grew up here. I don't travel much, and this is longest time I have been out of school."

"Yeah all that is true, but my powers are still telling me, even with that, you were still a Ward somewhere. Not here but somewhere."

"Your powers could be wrong."

"True they could, but you aren't outright denying it, and I think I know why."

"Do enlighten me then."

"Well, you know I can tell if you're lying. So you won't say that you weren't, cause then I'd know you were lying. So you are lying by omission, which is harder for me to pick up on. So you aren't saying anything, hoping that I will give it up as a bad job and think I came up with a false positive. Right?" She asked grinning even harder.

"You can't redirect your powers to something more productive, like say figuring out how we are going to pull the Empire job?"

"I'm sure you have a great plan for scamming them out of millions of dollars, but I just found out you were a Ward, and you don't want to talk about it? Why? What possible reason could you have for wanting to avoid talking about it that you would just throw out that the next job you want to pull is on the Empire, which, by the way, we will be talking about later. So what, were you kicked out? Did you drop out? You screw up and get people killed?"

There was a long pause after the last question. No doubt her powers were telling her I had. I had gotten a lot of people killed. Alec and possibly my father among the several billion that perished in the wake of Scion. Could her powers tell her all that?

From the sorrowful look on her face, the answer was no. She would look horrified if she knew it was billions. She would be asking more and more questions on how billions could have died and the rest of the world not noticed. No, what she was getting was that, yes, I had lost people.

Good, it might get her to drop the subject for a bit.

"I have an odd request for the boss for the Empire job. There is a company that will sell powers in a bottle. I need him to get us one. You think he can manage?"


	14. Interlude 2-Ia

Interlude: Gallant

Sitting out in the sun in costume, I reached for my phone as it pinged.

Wards HQ: 211S, Brockton Bay Central. Unknown assailants. Possible Parahuman involvement

I pinged my location. I was far outside the city proper, still in the limits, but we were just at the foothills. Most of what would be called the city was near the bay. Arcadia was only a few minutes from there. If I had been in class, I could have been there in two minutes tops. Now I was thirty minutes away and would need Armsmaster's express permission to leave.

Vista: Vista clear to go.

Clockblocker: CB enroute

(508) 531-2395: Browbeat clear to go

That was Roger, our newest member. He'd be coming from Clarendon High. I hadn't added his number yet.

Shadow Stalker: SS Im down

Kid Win!: Taking a test. Can be out in 5

Gallant: Gallant with the Protectorate. 30 min out

I was still waiting for Carlos to chime in, before I remembered he wouldn't be. Normally he'd be giving directions, but that responsibility was now Clockblocker's. He must have forgotten.

Vista: Orders Clock?

Clockblocker: Kid n Gallant are backup. Will call if need you. Team to meet 2 blocks N of bank then move from there.

A round of acknowledgements would be the last texts I'd be getting from them on the group text. Not that I minded, but it would have been more fun to be able to keep tabs on them.

I turned my focus back to Battery. She was chatting amicably with some relatives of the Mayor. I couldn't remember their names. They weren't anyone special in this city, or my dad would have already introduced them. They seemed to be pleasant. I could feel an undercurrent of worry from them. Could have been them feeling a bit out of place at this event. Could be something unrelated. My powers couldn't tell me a person's secrets, only what they were feeling.

Right now I was just feeling bored. I had tried talking to some of the upper powers like Mr. Anders and his girlfriend. He seemed outwardly nice. His emotions had been closely held in check, but I could feel a sort of ambivalence. I was fine with that. Most people were fake. I was at times too. It's just how the world was. There were certainly enough people being fake here now.

I normally loved these types of events. Hanging out at a country club, greeting the local powers. The Augustus Country Club was one of the only two my family would attend in Brockton Bay. Nestled on 236 acres of land, a few miles from downtown, Augustus had twenty seven holes of golf, five indoor tennis courts, four outdoor tennis courts, paddle and squash courts, two olympic-sized swimming pools, curling, skeet shooting, skating and hockey, and was adding an equestrian area in the next year or so. That was just the athletics. The club also had a four star restaurant, the Baldor. They had the juiciest steak. They were also famous for their chocolate mousse, or at least they were with Vicky. I'd had better in New York, but Vicky loved the chocolate mousse, almost as much as I loved feeling her enjoy it.

Her powers did funny things with mine. She could force out her emotions on other people, and I could see and feel other people's emotions. It might seem like it would be enough for only one of us to have powers for me to love her feeling happy, but somehow, the combination was like a drug. I had never tried drugs, mind you, but the analogy was no less true. There were times where it was all I could do not to get down on one knee and ask for her hand in marriage. When she was at her happiest, I wanted to be with her for every moment. The problem with our relationship, was that it worked in reverse too. When she was sad, or moody, it was hard to be around her.

Her happiness made me happy, and I let it. In her sour moods, I had to fight to keep my head. At times I lost it. People called me Gallant, but that was at press conferences, or meet and greets like this, where the collective energy was positive. For the press conferences, if it wasn't positive, there was at least someone whose happiness I could draw from. Usually Dennis was finding humor in something, and that was enough to keep me gallant.

I was glad that all our fights had been more or less private. The second her anger turned to hate, I was a different person than the Gallant Hero of Brockton Bay. I had never hurt her, at least not physically. Not that I could have if I tried, but even still, I had enough control to rein in my anger. Luckily she did too, or I wouldn't be standing here now.

Despite the fights, and her often violent mood swings, we care for each other. I could feel her happiness when she was around me and when she said she liked me. My power let me know when she was being honest. It was a bit of a double edged sword though. I could feel when she wasn't too, and some of those times it hurt. That was one of the reasons I was here now, instead of at school.

Armsmaster had made a special request to have me at the event today. He had made it in person, and I could tell right away something was up. He might have had a steady voice, but I could feel the emotion. It was rather complex, layered even. Apprehension. Agitation. Suspicion maybe? There were also the hints of rage bubbling beneath the surface. Ironically, those were some of the same emotions I had felt from Vicky the first time I tried using my power to calm her down. She had felt betrayed, and when Armsmaster had asked me to come to this event, I knew he was going through the same emotional rundown. Well not the exact same. Vicky had also felt violated. I wasn't getting that from Armsmaster.

It wasn't everyday the head of the Brockton Bay Protectorate felt betrayed. That alone was enough to put me on edge. I couldn't help but think it had something to do with the abrupt departure of Rory and Carlos. I wanted to ask him at the time, but he jumped right in with why he wanted me there. To spy on Battery…

That kind of request had shocked me. Battery? She had been a member of the Protectorate long before I had even triggered. What could she have done that would warrant Armsmaster having me spy on her.

Nonetheless, I was here now, at Augustus Country Club, spying on Battery. I could read her emotions from a distance, but Armsmaster had added a feature to my helmet that could let me hear clear across a crowded room. Frankly I couldn't read an individual's emotions in a crowded room. They mixed with the crowd and sometimes even mixed with the group they were talking to. To spy on Battery, I needed a clear line of sight to isolate her emotions, then gage them based off audio I could pick up. With that information, I had to try and decide if she was hiding something or not. Harder than it sounds. Everybody is hiding something. I might be useful in an interrogation, where we could ask a question, and I could gage their reaction and extrapolate if it's something to press them on or not. Here, now, when she was just mingling with random people, was less than useless, and my head wasn't really in the game.

I'd had another spat with Vicky again early this week. Amy had been there for it this time. It made matters worse when Vicky had stormed off, nearly leaving foot marks in the flooring, that Amy had felt so happy. I didn't even remember what we had fought about. Where to eat dinner? Or maybe what movie to see. All that I could remember was the joy that Amy felt. It was so hopeful. I was keeping her secret, but I didn't have to like it. It was wrong on so many levels. I know they're not blood related, but if you bring up someone as a sister, then blood doesn't mean anything. Not to mention, Vicky and I were still an item. It didn't matter if we had a little spat, we are still together. It was sad that Amy would even hope for something like that. She could hope all she wanted. I'd get Vicky back. I just had to apologize. Of course she would want to know what I was apologizing for and that's where I usually got stuck.

I was still thinking about what to say to patch things up with her when my phone pinged again.

This time it was Armsmaster in a mass broadcast. I looked up to see him approach and he didn't look happy.

"Time to go. You are riding in the van," he said, then turned and stalked off to his motorcycle.

I watched him ride off without saying anything to anyone else.

"So what's got you out here while the rest of the Wards are in school?" Battery asked, having come up behind me while I was watching Armsmaster.

I jumped a little and could feel curiosity. Only curiosity. Nothing sinister, malevolent, paranoid or even suspicious.

This was a stupid job.

"Armsmaster thought it would be a good idea for me to come out for the event. Public Relations says I'm marketable so he thought to market me a bit," I lied smoothly. My dad ran a major tech company in the city and had been training me to take over the business. Lying smoothly was part of the training.

"Really? Funny you've mostly just been sitting here by yourself?"

"What happened to Triumph and Aegis?" I asked, trying to deflect, and trying to get answers.

She went through a range of emotions. Shock. Confusion. Worry. Lastly sadness. She didn't know any more than I did.

"I can't tell you anything about them," she said. I could tell she was lying. "Sorry," and I could feel the emotions behind the apology.

It wasn't the same emotions I had gotten from Miss Militia. I could tell Battery was out of the loop, while Miss Militia was in the loop. I had felt a grim determination in her delivery of the statement. There was no official story that we had been told. Nothing for the press either. Piggot had made mention that we were to act as if nothing had changed. Dennis would be taking charge of the Wards teams. We weren't even told that Triumph had disappeared too, until Dennis had mentioned bringing Rory back to lead the team instead. That got reactions from the heroes that the other Wards could see just as well as I could.

"Are they ok at least? We haven't been told anything," I said, trying to plead a little.

"Battery! Gallant!" came a shout from the PRT Van waiting for us.

"Time to go! You can talk in the van on the way!"

I looked to see Miss Militia with an assault rifle in her hand. In the time it took for me to make it into the van, she had switched it out for machete, than to a pair of uzies, and finally to a revolver.

Battery beat me to the van and made it into her seat. Granted she had used her powers, but it still left me the last one in the van. The three of us were quickly seated in the back and the PRT driver took off, lights flashing.

"What are we looking at," Battery asked.

"Unknown parahuman or parahumans robbing Brockton Bay Central. Clockblocker, Vista, Browbeat, and Shadow Stalker already engaged. Kid Win is holding until we can bring additional backup."

"And they still need help?" I asked. "Have they reported back? Do we have anyone closer?"

"No, the Wards were supposed to be on call today. Dauntless is out of town with a Parahumans Tinker Review Panel for his power armor modifications. Assault is in Seattle to weigh in on a case for a local Villain, and Velocity is still injured."

"We could call New Wave?" I asked, thinking Vicky wouldn't mind getting time to vent some of her frustration in a healthy way.

"The Director has a long standing answer to that."

"It doesn't make us look weak if we get help from time to time…" I groused.

"Not our place to argue Gallant," Battery answered, adding her voice to the conversation for the first time.

Miss Militia's phone rang. I listened intently for anything important. A moot point as she put us on speaker phone.

"We are en route. Battery and Gallant with me. You are on speaker phone. Can you conference call us?"

"Doing so now," came a voice from the phone I didn't recognize.

"... seem to do any damage. Every time he hits it, he gets splattered with something and the damn thing just reforms. Vista's power is being blocked, and mine is useless against that thing. What do we do?"

I could tell it was Dennis. He wasn't up for the leadership role, but every one of us had to shoulder that burden at one point or another. He wasn't handling it so well. He had joked that he might be able to skip it all together, only having to shoulder the burden for a summer, before he would graduate and pass that on to me. I was worried he might not be taking this role seriously, either because he rarely took anything seriously, or because he still had hope that Carlos would just magically show up.

Either way it did nothing for his situation now.

"How is Shadow Stalker faring against it?" Asked Armsmaster, taking charge of another situation. Not that this didn't warrant it, but I knew from past experiences that he liked being in charge.

"She is still up on a pole shooting at it. I don't know if she has done any damage yet. Not that she's slowing down or stopping."

"Can you identify the cape?" I asked.

"We are on mute," Miss Militia informed me.

"I need a rundown of the encounter from your first arrival."

"Right. We got here, and there was a tall cape in the building with civilians pressed up against the windows. Shadow Stalker shot through the window and hit him in the head. He turned to smoke and started coming outside. Vista slowed him down at first, then he seemed to just work around her powers. She tried to get some space to work with, but then her powers just stopped altogether. There wasn't even darkness around her. She tried to run when the darkness got too close, but she couldn't find an angle that will let her work. Even straight up, she's stuck. When she started running, the cape pulled itself together from the smoke, and he's big. Two story big."

"Grue."

"What?"

"Grue, a member of the Undersiders. It's a new group of Villains. We don't have much info on them, but if this is manipulation of smoke, it's likely Grue. Other members are Regent, Hellhound, Tattletale, and… Hellhound's dogs."

The pause was odd.

"There aren't any others out here. No dogs, Regents, or Tattletales. I don't know, maybe. Browbeat made a pass at heading inside. He got stopped and brought down hard. I haven't seen him since. Shadow Stalker, too. One minute she's up on a light post shooting at the bastard, the next she's dropping to the ground holding her head and cursing. They might be in the darkness. I can't see in or over it, there's just too much. Shit he's getting bigger and the darkness is rising higher."

"Hold a moment," said Armsmaster.

"Hello?!"

"Vista. Armsmaster. We are enroute. I need a rundown of the fight and how it affected your powers."

"They aren't working now. Well, they are, but not really."

"I need a straight answer."

"Right… Ok so I can still use my powers, just my range sucks. I can't use it on organic material, and right now, it feels like I am surrounded by organic material. The shadows, I could work on areas before they spread there, but once I tried to get away, everything stopped working right."

"What is your range now?"

"It's almost nothing. Maybe a few inches from me."

"Make wind."

I snorted. From the looks I got from both Battery and Miss Militia, I was glad we were on mute.

"My power doesn't work like that. I can warp space, but it's never done anything like creating a breeze or even wind."

"Try."

"I. I can't even get space to try."

"Work with what you have. You have a few inches, warp that into feet."

"Ok."

Things weren't going well. I sent Vicky a text stating the location and asking for help. We could patch things up after this. For now, my team needed help.

"Browbeat is clear!"

"Get him out of Grue's darkness. Regroup and hold."

"Browbeat!" I could hear Dennis shouting.

"BROWBEAT!" he shouted again.

"I got it!" exclaimed Vista. "Wait I need a sec."

Not being able to talk to her, I waited in silence. I could tell by the greenery that we were still a ways outside the city. We had a ways to go before we could help directly. It was frustrating, and I could feel my emotions compounded by the same feelings from Battery and Miss Militia.

Static burst over the phone, or I thought it was static at first.

"I'm clear!" came Vista's response.

"Focus on-"

"I know!" came Vista's terse reply, cutting Armsmaster off mid sentence.

We waited again in silence while she worked on dealing with the situation.

"Bugs? It's bugs!" Vista uttered under her breath.

"What are-"

"Civvies leaving the bank en masse!" Clockblocker all but shouted.

"Contain them, there may be villains hiding amongst them," Armsmaster said.

"I'll redirect- Ahh!"

"What's happening?"

There was no response. No response for a long time.

My phone buzzed.

Glory Girl: Wards r frozen. 5 running E. I got it.

"Glory Girl is on the scene. She said the team is frozen," I said, showing the text message.

Miss Militia grabbed the phone to read the text. I was a little offended she just snatched it from me, but didn't say anything. It wouldn't help the situation.

She unmuted our phone and relayed the message to Armsmaster.

"Get a line open to her, I want to know what's going on," he responded.

"Sir, she is going to need her hands free if you want her to be effective, and she isn't a member of the Wards, so she may not listen if you give her orders," Miss Militia supplied.

Knowing Vicky, she wouldn't like anyone bossing her around, let alone Armsmaster. He wasn't that great with social interactions, and he tended to just assume people would do as he told them.

Miss Militia was texting her back from my phone. Hopefully she would at least say it was her. I didn't want to have to try explaining why I was ordering her to do anything later.

We sat in silence, waiting for a response. We waited the whole ride to the bank. By the time we got there, the fight was already over.

I hopped out of the van and rushed over to the police tape. I could see Vicky at the back of an ambulance up on a gurney. My heart started racing as I took in her general appearance.

She had tear streaks running down her cheeks, red dots all over her body, and as my eyes moved down her perfect body, I saw her leg was in a brace.

I climbed up into the ambulance, ignoring the protest from one of the medics and embraced her.

She clung to me tightly, but not painfully. She cried, and I let her. She was trying to hold back the tears, maybe for my sake, or maybe for hers.

"It's ok, it's going to be fine," I whispered into her ear. She only cried harder.

I let her, doing nothing to her emotions, nor trying to shield my own from her. I left myself open to her. I was glad to wear a full face mask, as I started to cry with her.

We were disturbed by Armsmaster.

"You need to come with us," he stated, surprising both of us.

I turned to look at him, trying to squash my own annoyance. I had found it hard to recognise that people couldn't intuit general moods like I could. Even adjusting for that, Armsmaster was pretty dense.

"Give me a minute," I said.

"Not you Gallant. We need to debrief her. They used Clockblocker's power against the rest of the team. She may have information on how."

"No," I said without pause for thought.

He crossed his arms at my defiance and glared hard at me.

"No, it's fine. I'm alright," Vicky said pulling back to look at me.

"Vicky," I started before shutting myself up. I could feel her resolve, and grim determination.

These guys had hurt her in ways I had never imagined were possible and even still she wanted to make a report. I admired her for that.

"Can you walk?" he asked, pointing at her leg.

"I have to ask my sister, I may not be able to," Vicky replied. I could feel her... ashamed?

Armsmaster turned without another word and strode off, no doubt looking for Amy, or Panacea now that she was working.

"What happened?" I asked and immediately regretted it. I could feel her sadness welling up again. Shame welled up.

I went back to placating her.

Our next interruption was from Amy. She paused at the doorway and it took the pair of us a moment to realize she was there. I only noticed after feeling hate and jealousy building up behind me.

I turned to greet her.

"Thank you," I said, catching her off guard. "For helping Vicky," I added.

"Amy!" she cried out, reaching a hand out for her.

Amy climbed into the van and took her hand. She sat down beside me and placed her other hand on Vicky's leg.

"Hey sis."

"Hey. How am I doing?"

"Your leg is healing. It was a clean slice, so it's easier to get it reattached. The bites aren't anything to worry about. I've dealt with venom before. It's gonna be cleared up in a few hours."

I looked at the pair of them. A clean slice? Reattached? What the hell happened?

"How is everyone else?" she asked.

"Everyone else is fine. A few civilians tripped on the lines like you did, but none of them lost a leg. One guy lost a few fingers when he fell on one, but we found them floating in a puddle and got them reattached. He'll be fine, like you, in a while. You both might need physical therapy to make sure everything is still moving right, but I can work with you on that."

I bet she could.

"What happened?" I asked, trying to keep my voice level.

"Save it until we are at back at the P.R.T. building," Armsmaster interrupted us again. "Get strapped in, the ambulance will take you there."

With that, he left, closing the doors behind us and tapping them twice to signal the driver.

We rode in silence, Amy holding Vicky's hand, working on the leg while I sat with my arm around her shoulder. I was offering what comfort I could without altering her emotions. It wasn't much, but it was all I could do for her now.

We made it to the P.R.T. building without incident. Vicky was moved to a wheelchair with her leg extended out in front of her.

Amy was wheeling in her sister, while Vicky left a hand on Amy so she could still be worked on. Her bite marks were essentially gone now, but I guess her leg was still an issue.

The rest of the Wards were already gathered and unmasked. Dennis was getting a dressing down from both Armsmaster and Piggot. He also had a few rose petals on him. Odd, but that's not the weirdest thing to come out of a cape fight.

Oddly enough, no one seemed to be really hurt. Sophia, now with her mask off, had a bump on her head, but that was it. Roger looked messy, but he had already cleaned off whatever had splattered on him with a spare towel.

Despite the lack of injuries, I could feel how depressed the rest of the team was. They had been beaten, and from what I had seen, soundly.

"Hey all!" I said coming into the room. Several heads turned my way. Dennis looked at me with eyes that practically screamed 'help'.

"Hey Vista, can you go grab us the white board? Uh, grab two please," I said, knowing I couldn't interrupt the dressing down without them getting more agitated. Not unless I had a valid reason.

I walked over to the Roger, thinking he would give me a better answer than Sophia.

"Hey Roger, what's up with Dennis?"

"He froze us. And when we unfroze, he had a rose in his hand and was covered in rose petals," he said in a no nonsense voice. I could feel the suspicion coming off him. I checked the rest of the team. Piggot and Armsmaster were both angry, with a bit of suspicion each. Missy was… well, I guess I had distracted her. Sophia was brooding silently, while texting constantly. Kid Win, AKA Chris, was excited, no doubt thinking of some new tinker device he could create. Miss Militia was pensive, perhaps reserving judgement until later. Battery seemed slightly amused at the dressing down. Not sure why though. I'd mention it to Armsmaster later. Maybe.

"Hey I got the boards," Missy said, brightening at seeing me again.

I had taken my helmet off and gave her a winning smile. I could feel her crushing on me and drew on it. It was some proclivity to lighten the mood and get their spirits up again.

"Hey Dennis! You gonna join us for the debriefing?" I called out, interrupting Piggot instead of Armsmaster.

"No he will not be joining you for a debrief. He will be accompanying myself and these fine gentlemen for a disciplinary review. You may conduct the debriefing yourself Gallant."

"With all due respect Director, can't he face the review after we debrief? I'm sure some of the questions you'll be asking him will be the same ones we will. It might," I said, holding up a hand before she could interrupt me, "also be good to get the other views from the event from the rest of the team, including from Glory Girl and Panacea."

Piggot gave me a cold stare and nodded.

"Armsmaster, record the debriefing. I'll need to add this for the review board later."

He nodded and moved to the back of the room to get a better view of the boards and the rest of the group.

Piggot gave me a flash of impatience, and I took that as my cue to start.

"Okay guys, before we get started, I think it's important to make some things clear. First off, most importantly, today was not a failure. I'd even say that today was a win for the good guys, and we start establishing that here and now."

I took a moment to gauge the disbelief of the room. Everyone, save for Missy was experiencing shock, incredulity, and disbelief. She at least, had faith enough in me to save her emotions till she heard me out. Even Vicky was disbelieving. Not that I could blame any of them.

"Grue and the Undersiders. They've flown under the radar so far, but more recently, they've started pulling higher profile jobs. They hit the Ruby Dreams casino five weeks ago, and now they just robbed the biggest bank in Brockton Bay. This time we were lucky enough to get in their way. That means we finally have Intel on their group."

I turned to the whiteboards and wrote the names out on the board. Grue with a dash and the name Smoke. I wasn't sure they weren't two different capes, like Night and Fog. Heck it might even be Night and Fog. They had been inactive for a long time. Next was Tattletale. I put Hellhound and Regent's name on the second board.

"One more name," Vicky said. I turned to see her. She wasn't making eye contact, just looking at the board.

"A new recruit?" Dennis asked.

"Monarch," she shuddered at the name and Amy gripped her hand tighter.

Her response was bad. I checked the rest of the group. Nothing from any of them except… Armsmaster? He recognized the name. Ok so maybe it's good to have him here now. He might be able to add more info than the rest of the team.

I wrote the name up on the board.

"Would you like to start with Monarch?" I asked gently.

"No."

"Ok let's go with Grue then," I said writing 'smoke control' up on the board.

"It's not normal smoke: you can't hear either, and it feels strange too," Roger spoke, "There's resistance, like you're underwater, but not floating. There was more to it too. Each time I jumped through I got covered in bugs. When I punched through it, they spattered, but it didn't seem to do much to him."

"I don't think the bugs were Grue," Missy added, "they were what was messing up my powers. I couldn't see them in the rain, but after I caused the explosion, I could see them moving toward me. They came when the darkness wasn't there."

"Ok, so we have bugs. Would that be someone like Hellhound or Monarch?"

"Monarch," Amy stated, looking at her sister.

"She uses bugs. Fine control. She used them to carry a rose to Clockblocker and covered him in rose petals after he was frozen," Vicky clarified, without intonation.

"That's good to know. So Monarch used the bugs which Mantoned Vista. Ok so what else? Come on guys any little thing will help here."

"Hellhound seemed like the opposite of Monarch. We interviewed some of the hostages. They told us Hellhound had to whistle to get her dogs to come to her. I never even saw Monarch during the fight, and she was able to use her bugs on me," Missy added.

"Could she have been inside with the hostages, watching from the windows?" Armsmaster asked. He seemed… weird. There was apprehension there.

"Maybe, but if she was, she would be looking through the smoke," Roger said.

"Or on an upper floor looking down," Chris added.

"From the people we interviewed, she and Grue were inside the building the whole time, or at least up until all of them headed out as a group," Missy clarified.

"So Grue was inside the whole time we were fighting his smoke? Damnit we're dumb," Roger lamented.

"Hey, you came up against an unfamiliar cape, and they played you. There is no shame in that. Some of the most dangerous capes are the ones we know nothing about. Imagine if you were put in a fight against Clockblocker, but had no idea what he could do. One punch and it's game over, and a big guy like you, loses to a little guy like Clockblocker."

"Hey I'm not little anything," Dennis protested in mock seriousness.

"You get my point though right? You did great for your first time out with the group. No civilian casualties, no permanent injuries," I said immediately regretting doing so. Vicky might have something permanent, but neither she nor Amy had told me yet. Not that they had to, of course, but it still would be nice to know how my girlfriend is doing.

"Yeah alright. I still feel dumb. I was literally fighting nothing, and they were inside laughing at me the whole time," Roger said.

"Us," I emphasized. "We are team, if they were laughing, it was at the team. No one else picked up on it either. So don't beat yourself up over it."

"Yeah save that for the Undersiders," Dennis interjected.

Sophia looked up from her phone for the first time. She had been oddly silent.

"Anything to add Shadow Stalker?"

"Nope," she said, before turning back to look down at her phone.

Figures.

"What about Tattletale and Regent?" Armsmaster asked. "Those two columns are still empty."

"Guys?" I aske the room.

I got only silence.

"We didn't face off against either of them. Even the civilians we talked to didn't know anything. Are we sure they were even there?" Roger asked.

"Five capes came out of the bank with three big monster dogs. Maybe they were there, but they didn't do anything."

"So who fucked you up then Glory Girl?" Sophia asked, giving her a smug look.

I looked back at Vicky. She was still looking at the board. I followed her eyes to the name.

"Monarch?" I asked gently.

She nodded her head.

"Well don't keep us waiting. We're all really interested in how miss invincible loses a leg to cockroaches," Sophia said, her voice cruel.

"Fuck off Shadow Stalker!" Amy shouted, rising to her sister's defense.

"Enough!" shouted Piggot. "Glory Girl you were brought in because you could give us information on the Undersiders. If you're just going to waste our time, then save us the trouble and leave."

"Bullets on Butterfly Wings."

"Huh?"

"Bullet ants. She carried them over on butterflies. She landed a swarm of monarch butterflies on me. She said, 'Tell Amy I'm sorry'. She shot me, then had bullet ants tear into me. It was too much. I… I."

"Take your time," I said having walked over to take her hand in mine. She squeezed it, but not too hard.

"I went down. They kept biting and biting. Eventually they left, and the biting wasn't as bad. I crushed the rest of them, but there were so many. It took me a while to get back up on my feet. But when I did, they were gone. The Undersiders. I went to check on the rest of you guys. I flew over to Clockblocker, who had bugs still covering him. I went to land and tripped up. I tried to get up, but was trapped. I kicked up, and whatever I kicked, it cut right through my leg. I rolled on my side to try and stop the bleeding. When Clockblocker got free, that's how he found me."

"There were lines tied to the Wards," Amy supplied. "Organic lines, like lines from a spider web. There were several on Victoria. I found the one that she kicked through. It still had her blood on it."

"You think Monarch rigged up this trap?"

"Damnit I told you I didn't do it on purpose! There, that's how it happened. I never even got close to the rest of the team when they froze. That must be it. Monarch froze them. She covered me with bugs that were tied to the rest of the Wards and then attacked me with those bugs!"

"It still doesn't explain why you didn't stop your power at the bugs. We know you have enough control to halt a time stop on non living material," the director cautioned. She seemed less angry now, or at least less angry and Dennis.

"I… I panicked. I had bugs crawling all over me. Biting stinging… Bugs climbed in my nose, ears, mouth, and… And I panicked. I pushed out and by the time I realized how far out my powers were extending, I had already tagged the rest of the team. That's never happened before. Those skinny threads? It wasn't like when I use my power on the ground. For me it's mass. Those lines of thread, it was like they were standing inches from me. Not feet, inches. So by the time I figured out what was going on, how far my power was extending, it was too late to stop it!"

"It's all right Clockblocker, we believe you," I said, heading off another rant before it started up.

"He's not lying," Armsmaster added when the director looked at him for confirmation.

"And the roses? How do you explain them? If I hear correctly from Glory Girl," Piggot gave her a look that said 'don't lie to me', "then Monarch both used your powers against the rest of the Wards and left you the roses. Which I'm assuming she planned to bring in advance. Unless someone would like to add the creation of roses in her powers column?"

No one moved to second her motion. I was still at Vicky's side, holding her hand.

"I think it would be better to list her as a thinker for now. She seemed to know more about how our powers work better than we do, and maybe more about us and how we will react," I added.

"The powers make sense, sure, but how we will react?" Roger asked.

"Vista acted to bring the hostages to her, which later turned out to be a trap. Shadow Stalker has a hate on for Grue, and focused solely on doing damage to his shadow mass, which turned out to be a decoy. She knew Vicky's name and knew enough about her to know her sister was near. She saw past Clockblocker's disguise and pushed him past his panic point, but at just the right moment. I'm not saying she's at the Simurgh's level of thinker, but we should rank her high enough that we don't underestimate her in the future," I finished.

"You give her too much credit," Armsmaster started. "Most of that could have been luck."

"Maybe, but look at the other columns. Almost empty. She has other members of her team, and aside from Grue, none of them saw any action. We know some of what Regent can do, and have enough reports on Hellhound to know they aren't pushovers, but they weren't even used here, and they could have done some damage if they had. She took apart our team with no risk to her own, and with a few surgical strikes, neutralized everyone at once. This Monarch, she's good. We go up against her again, we take her out first."

"You mention the other columns are blank," started Armsmaster, "with one of those a cape named Tattletale. I find it more likely Monarch is a master while the information on the local capes could have been provided by this Tattletale. Label her the thinker for now. She might have briefed the team on who they might be coming up against, or relayed this information to the rest of the group during the fight."

"No."

Heads turned to look at Vicky.

"No?" asked Armsmaster, crossing his arms with a scowl on his face.

"She knew," said Vicky.

"Not Tattletale," Vicky paused again before continuing, "Monarch… she knew how to hurt me. Tattletale was down and out. She didn't say a thing to Monarch, and she still knew. And she knew Amy was near too. Maybe they both are thinkers. But Monarch took me out all on her own," she elaborated for us.

"Noted. Gallant, you have some ideas on how to deal with her?" Piggot asked.

"Some. She might have spent time studying the local capes, or she might pick it up as soon as she spends time around us. None of them seemed to plan for Vicky coming in, and that cost them their dogs and a van. So it might be that new faces won't be an issue, or they might. Can we come back to them a bit later? Vicky will need a ride home soon, and I need some time to flesh out ideas."

"I'd like to speak with you before you file that report. Your team may not be the only ones to be coming up against the Undersiders, and I'd like to see how this can be adapted to the Protectorate," interjected Armsmaster.

I nodded, knowing full well that we would talk about Monarch, but only after a debriefing on Battery ad nauseam.

"Bringing in new faces might be something to consider. We are two down without Triumph and Aegis. I already mentioned bringing in a replacement for Aegis. This would be as good a time as any..." Armsmaster trailed off, just now making note of the room.

Every single one of us looked at Armsmaster. Vicky, Amy, and Piggot included. It was unnerving to know that the Wards weren't the only ones in the dark on this.

"We'll discuss this in my office," Piggott growled out, nearly dragging Armsmaster with her.

We sat in barely restrained silence as they left.

"What happened to Aegis and Triumph," Amy asked the room.

"Good. Fucking. Question," Dennis replied.

A replacement? What the hell happened?

AN: A special thanks to my Beta, Claytorpedo. Thank you all for reading. Be sure to comment. Discussion threads are on Spacebattles. Look for 'Harbinger (Worm)' under Forums/Creative Writing.


	15. Mandible 2-5

2.05 Mandible

"Weaver," Jack said, and the name carried as an echo.

"Hi Jack," I said. I hung my head, focusing on what my power was telling me.

"I'm afraid you don't have the slightest chance of accomplishing anything."

"I have to try," I said.

"Such sad, small words," Jack commented. "You won't. You're too big for your boots, Weaver. You had a few critical successes and you've run with them. Earned yourself a reputation. But at the end of the day, you're still the same pathetic bug controller who got her powers because bullies stuck her in a locker full of her own waste."

"People probably said the same thing about you in the beginning, Jack," I said. "Too big for your boots."

"They did. My trigger event was a little more dignified, though. No matter. I've been at this a long time. You'll never even rate a concern."

"Want to fight, Jack?" I asked. My bugs moved through the crowd as I noted each of the threats that were present.

"Eh," Jack said, shrugging, "I can take you. Step through that doorway, and I'll give you a fair fight. One on one. Look. I'll even put my knife in my belt, hands on my head."

I could see him do so. A trick. A trap.

"You said it yourself," Jack said. "You can't afford not to."

Too true. He had my team. Grue, Tattletale, Bitch, Imp, and Regent.

"Why this fixation on ending the world?" I asked.

"Nuh uh uh," Jack answered me. "Not going to get bogged down in a discussion. We have a situation. I'm going to walk away in about fifteen seconds, unless you want to have a duel. Knife against knife, or gun against knife, if you prefer. You win here, it's a coup for the world. What better option for the make-believe queen?"

The make-believe queen?

Maybe a name Cherish had given me. I tightened my grip on the gun, but I kept my finger off the trigger.

Someone advanced. I felt tripwires snap and break.

Letting a hostage go?

I turned and started to fire before the individual in question could step through the doorway. By the time I made the conscious decision and had started squeezing the trigger, the individual in question was emerging. The bullet made contact, passing through their head.

A life taken. A hostage killed. But I couldn't afford to take any chances.

No.

I shook my head.

Imp.

A control spider was mounted on her. She must have turned off her power at the last second. And I'd killed her.

"That was impolite," Jack said.

"No tricks," I said in a monotone.

"I could send Siberian after you," he said. "She wouldn't even have to kill you. Just hold you still. Bonesaw and Gray Boy could have worlds of fun. Remember what we did to your team leader? Imagine the eternity of pain Gray Boy could deliver after our Bonesaw has given you more nerve endings to work with. Or maybe we send him out to kill you instead. Cherish tells me you two are close?"

"That was his sister she just shot. Not so close now," Cherish supplied.

"Oh? What fun that would be, I doubt it would even take much more than a nudge from Bonesaw to get him to go after you. Would you kill him too? Perhaps I should send him out now?"

"You could," I said.

"I could, but it would only delay me further. No, your time is up, Weaver. I hope you don't regret your hesitation."

I wouldn't.

I drew in a deep breath, waiting for the second Grue advanced, then stepped back from the doorway.

I opened fire. The sole remaining Siberian moved to Jack's side before I could pull the trigger.

I wasn't aiming for Jack. It wasn't even a consideration, not that I had a line of sight to him. Like he said, he had Gray Boy with him. The second I stepped into their sight, I was a goner.

My bullet took Cherish in the head. Another bullet struck Screamer.

I hesitated.

Then I shot Regent, who was held in a Hatchet Face's arms.

The rest of my team attacked. The world went dark and I targeted Bitch first, one bullet in the heart, the other in the neck, and the last through the skull. I shot Grue, the bullet piercing his eye socket but not exiting through the back of his helmet.

With Grue dead, the darkness faded. The nine were gone. It was only Tattletale left, Spider still mounted to her back.

"You murdered us," she said. "You used us like pawns in your game against Jack, all to stop the end of the world. We were your friends and you betrayed us. Did you ever really care about any of us? Did you ever really care about me? I saved your life, set you on a path to keep you that way, and this is how you repay me?"

I still had me gun raised and pointed at her. I couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger. I hesitated to end it. It cost me.

I felt her move, Imp rising and vanishing. I turned, too late.

Her blade slid across my throat.

0

0

0

I awoke with a start, reaching for my throat.

A dream. Just a dream.

I looked at my phone to check the date and time. 6:15 am, April fifteenth, 2011. That fight against Jack wouldn't be until June 19th, 2013. There was still time, but what Tattletale said was gnawing at me.

Rolling out of bed, I turned off my alarm. It was set for 6:30 am and I didn't need it going off if I was already in the shower. I reached out with my bugs to check my surroundings as I made my way there. My bugs in the basement had traveled, some spreading out into the house a bit. Unfortunate, but manageable. I redirected them back to work, spinning string lines and weaving them into cords for inclusion to my suit. The leggings were nearly done. I'd decided to make this set a pure body stocking. Given the plans I had, I would need a few different outfits. It would be easier to have a single body stocking I could wear under everything without drawing attention to it.

I still planned on a refined costume for myself. That would take a while, and I was still thinking of what direction I'd be taking it in. Sharp pointed nails with knuckled gloves. Soft soled shoes instead of the boots. The boots could be a separate piece that I could add when secrecy wasn't as big a priority. Spiked elbow pads I could use in combat. A short cape I could use as a hood. It might not be a bad idea to wear a full helmet. Maybe use a wig over top. I had never worn one and that had cost me in a few fights. There was the concussion against Bakuda, Jack had done a number on me once he realized my hairline was unprotected. I would miss the joy of just letting my hair flow freely, but survival trumped comfort.

These were all things for a later time though. I would want the ironclad beetles in large supply for a helmet and most of my other gear. Titan beetles would also be needed for the spikes I wanted to use. The crowning element would of course be the Darwin's bark spiders, though none of those would be ready in harvestable numbers until even after the Behemoth attack, barring involvement from either Blasto or Amy.

With plans for my costume developing, I set about taking a shower, then heading out for a jog.

0

0

0

Nearing the boardwalk, I slowed from my run to a light jog to plug in a charged battery for my phone. Powering up, I checked for messages. Two missed calls and one voicemail. All from the same number. I moved into an alley, played the message and caught my breath. Funny how I had thought myself in shape at this point. I was still stick thin with almost no muscle on me. I appreciated the training I had done with the Wards a lot more now. It would take a long time to build back up to that, and sadly, I had other priorities.

"Hello Harbinger? This is Blasto. I have a few samples ready for you to test out. You'll need to give me feedback before I can refine the samples. There's also been some odd people coming in and out of my territory. I don't recognize them as locals either. Nothing serious has happened, but it might be something you want to look into. You have my number. Let me know when you'll stop by."

My relay bugs. That would help immensely. I had a huge sum of money from Coil, and all that was from before the bank job. Not that the money we stole from the bank would help much. Spilt it five ways and it was hardly anything, at least not compared to the $350k I got for signing up. He would need to be paid and well. Not $350k well, but I didn't want to skimp on him either.

I was still a little nervous. I hadn't heard anything from Dinah, nor Cauldron. Dinah, I couldn't infer anything from that. I had given her two notes to work from. She might see more people surviving because she didn't talk to me to tell me she was alright. Cauldron could also mean anything. Accord might have passed on the message and 'Miss Path-To-Victory' could have said don't bother. Or he could be trying to screw me. I wouldn't have thought that he'd not pass along the message. Just to satisfy his own curiosity, I thought he would have at least brought me to their attention. The other option was that all this fell under the 'don't interfere' bubble that Coil would have with regards to Cauldron. No, the last one wouldn't hold up.

A thought had occurred to me though. Contessa might see me as a road block. She had allowed for the end times to come about. I had asked her once, why she never used her powers on the Endbringers. At the time I had thought that maybe there was no way to beat an Endbringer. Now though, it might have been part of her plan to keep them around as cannon fodder for Scion. She might have known Eidolon was the End-daddy and kept him as a weapon against Scion anyway.

More things to worry about. Too bad I couldn't delegate that to an underling. Those plans I had to play close to the chest.

I dialed a number I still had memorized. There were other tasks I could delegate to others. This was one of them.

"You're attempting to reach Glenn Chambers, PRT Head of Image. For our mutual convenience, please categorize your message. Press one to contact my personal assistant, who can get your message to me in text asap. Press two if you got my number from my business card. Press four if you are an employee. Press five if this is a personal call. Press nine if the call is of utmost urgency, to put yourself on the line immediately if I'm on the phone, or set off an alarm if I'm not."

I pressed two. A bit of a lie, having never actually received his business card.

"This is Tracy receiving a call for Glen Chambers," the young woman answered on the phone.

0

0

0

Two more calls and another play was in motion. It wasn't what Armsmaster had wanted, but it would work for him regardless. Making my way to the loft, I checked the webs I had on site. My bedroom door had been disturbed since I left last night. The ground floor of the loft had a path going to and from my workstation as well. Lisa most likely snooping a bit. I made my way up to shower before heading back to the ground floor to work more on the costumes.

It was an hour before Brian showed up, saying hi before heading upstairs to await the rest of our crew. I'd want to get his measurements at some point, but for now, I wouldn't be able to do anything with them. I let him go without bothering him. My focus was on planning, I just wanted to stay down here to avoid multitasking or talking.

My range was still poor, though the fight with Glory Girl did help. Two and a half blocks was my limit now. I was pushing further in all directions, feeling the edge of my range inching bit by bit. Aside from my range, my control was diminished, along with a lot of the learned skills. Practicing them was important.

Spiders – not my black widows – were securing breakaway lines across doors, windows, and paths of travel. Gnats and flies were rigged up with threads between them and sent scouting rooftops and walls of building. Mannequin had slipped past me several times before. It wasn't too much of an effort to create this sort of rigging and it might help against strangers. Then again it might not, but there was no reason not to get the practice.

After my shower, I turned on the TV upstairs. The volume was low enough that it wouldn't wake anyone, but loud enough so that my bugs could distinguish the vibrations the speakers generated. Trying to turn those vibrations into sounds was something I had never achieved in my first go-round. It had cost me when I was in the custody of Tag and Alexandria. I had been able to discern music from headphones, and while hearing music and understanding words was a jump, I was still making the effort.

With my bugs listening to the TV, I also had the added benefit of hearing, and feeling Brian's reaction to seeing my bug clones sitting on the sofa. Eight clones in all. Three dogs, Bitch, Regent, Tattletale, Grue, and Skitter all turned their 'heads' to face him as he came in the room. I had to give him credit, he didn't cry out, just dropped into a fighting stance and flooded the room with darkness. On to my next trick: talking.

Realazzz Rrrrian. Izzz juzt eee, my bugs buzzed for me, still having trouble with sounds one needs lips for.

"Fucking A Taylor," he shouted down the stairwell to me. "Warn a guy first. I almost dropped the coffee."

"Villains, remember!" I shouted back up to him.

With my bugs placed on him, I could feel his snort better than I could hear it.

My bug clones still needed work, so I was trying to hold together multiple clones using multiple forms. Always pushing myself. I had a long way to go to get back to where I had left off, and I didn't have much time to do so. The clones would be needed tonight, unless the preemptive raid on the drug house had altered events in some unforeseeable way.

Brian made his way to the kitchen and made himself comfortable, laying out his newspaper, the coffees, and food. I kept tabs on him along with the rest of the Undersiders. The clock with hands I had picked up was sitting in my room telling me it was 9:33. That it was morning was a given.

I moved back to a standing position to allow my black widows to continue weaving on me. My pants were on the table, with a loose skirt covering me for modesty sake. Now that I was sure Brian wouldn't walk in on me in an awkward position, I undid the skirt so my spiders could finish covering my pelvis. I would have prefered doing this at home, but I had worn out most of the spiders at that location and needed the fresh batch here.

The spiders I had here were first mating, laying eggs, eating, then weaving for me. The useless bugs, were doing the same, though instead of eating and weaving, they were instead being eaten. Some of the more robust bugs were gardening, planting flowers in the area. It would be a while before they would bloom, and support my namesake. Seeds were easy enough to get at a local gardening store and a quick google search let me know which were best for my area and desired insects. My morning run had me planting the various seed types to attract and support them throughout the city. I never considered myself a gardener, not in school nor during my time with the Wards. I still didn't, but that didn't mean I would limit myself by not attempting to expand my skill range. Dragon had handled my supply of butterflies, but if I wanted to make use of them early on, I'd need to do a bit of legwork attracting them on my own.

On the far side of the room, far enough away that I wouldn't be exposed, I was dousing my bugs in capsaicin. In the opposite corner, I was experimenting with the can of solid cooking fuel. Both types of bugs I wanted on hand. Not to say I could get the firebugs working before tonight, but still worth the effort.

These were the little things that I was having to devote more attention to than normal. Eventually it would all be routine, then just background noise.

Still standing, I paged through the old news reports I had collected this morning. The one in particular I was looking at was a bomb scare at Cornell University. I was planning on going up against Bakuda again. The first time she led us into a trap, one we narrowly escaped from. As much as I might want to avoid it, the safest solution was to spring the trap. She would need to strike out against us, and if she didn't get us tonight, she would find another way to come after us. Tonight, at least, I knew how she would attack. I knew the battlefield, her first few moves, and the pieces she had in play.

More importantly I knew the pieces she was using elsewhere. Oni Lee would be going after Lung. Should I delay our fight, we might be going up against all three parahumans instead of just Bakuda. I had other reasons for wanting to spring this trap too. Uber and Leet would have their 'snitch' floating around. It would be a chance to show off to Coil and the rest of the villains what we were capable of. It would also be a chance to make contact with Uber, and more importantly Leet.

Rachel woke and took her dogs out. They had the unfortunate reaction of barking at my bug clones, but Rachel quickly put a stop to that. It did wake the other occupants. Rachel headed down the stairs, though I didn't bother covering up as she left through the side door. She wasn't one to say anything, nor would she care.

I checked my waist. The leggings were still compromising. It was another hour before I didn't need to worry about my modesty. I was shutting down my laptop as Lisa emerged from her room, dressed and ready for the day. She hadn't batted an eye at my swarm any of the times she passed through the main hall. Alec hadn't even seen them, simply zombie walking into the bathroom, then back to bed. I made my entrance, practicing my dramatic flair as I emerged.

The movement caught Lisa and Brian's attention, with my bug clones condensing at select windows, the skylight, my bedroom door, and the door from the stairs I would actually be coming up from. At each point, my swarm became a dense cloud, hiding a second swarm forming the likeness of my body emerging into the room. I timed my actual entrance to the room to when both Lisa and Brian's eyes were away from the door. I could have climbed in through the window, but it wasn't worth the effort. This was more a dry run to be sure I could manage a likeness in each of the clouds. As soon as the door cracked open, Lisa's eyes were on me. I made it three steps in before Brian either noticed my approach, or picked up from Lisa which one I was.

I kept up the charade, having my swarms approach the kitchen where Lisa and Brian were. The clones began stepping into one another, dropping their numbers. I took a moment's distraction from Brian to step into the clone from the skylight, then had another clone step into where I was. Lisa still followed me, but Brian at least was surprised when I dispersed the bugs to the ceiling, revealing myself in my new location.

"Damn that was cool," Brian gushed. "I thought I had you, coming up from the ground floor, but how did you come in through the skylight?"

"Should I tell him?" Lisa asked, smirking a bit as she did.

"No let him figure it out. So whats up guys?"

"Brian was just about to show us the paper. We're looking to see if we made front page news with the heist."

"Yeah," Brian said, seeming a little distracted as he did so.

He was looking at me, which made me take stock of myself. I still had my bugs weaving on me, bringing the waistline of my leggings up bit by bit. At the moment there were admittedly low, covering the more sensitive areas, but definitely scandalous. My oversized t-shirt was tied off at the back to keep the fabric from getting in the way of their work. It left a fair bit of midriff showing, along with the lines of my hip, and the top of my butt exposed. Not that I had much of one – I was still stick thin. Brian was distracted all the same.

Lisa frowned a little, taking in my appearance. Brian's long pause was making me feel more than a little self conscious. I might have overdone it a bit, but I was damned if he was going to think of me as his sister again.

"So how did we do? Front page news?" I asked into the expanding silence.

"Oh, uh- right. So not front page news," Brian recovered, "but we did make the second," he continued, opening the paper for us to see. "I had thought to show you downstairs, but you looked busy."

"Yeah," I said, reading through before my eyes caught on a picture of a cape I recognized on page 3. I tensed reading the headline. 'Parian Kidnapped at Promotional Event'.

I snatched the paper and started reading. A quick scan of the article left my blood racing. She was taken in broad daylight. Eyewitness reports had her creations deflating explosively before she collapsed with them. A car pulled up to the curb and she was hauled away by two unknown individuals. They didn't say if they were capes or not. There were no descriptions of powers used. I looked for the time of the incident and found it coinciding with our raid on the bank.

"I... did this."

"Hey now, you don't get to take all the credit. We did this as a team," Brian said taking back the paper. "What?" he asked, tilting his head, as if to look at me from a different angle. "Taylor, you ok? You look like you're… I don't know, I thought you'd be cool with this."

Why would Coil have done this. It didn't make any sense. Parian should never have factored into Coil's plans. She'd be a non combatant until the Leviathan fight. Even after, she wouldn't get violent until the Slaughterhouse 9 broke her. She was nowhere near as useful as Dinah Alcott. The move made no sense whatsoever… Unless-"

"Hey," Brian said, putting a hand on my shoulder and giving me a firm but brief nudge. "What the hell Taylor, you're spacing out on us with a look of utter horror on your face. What the hell is going on?"

I reached for the paper, only to have Brian hold it out of my reach.

"Page 3. The main article," I said, giving Lisa a pointed look.

They both read the article, Lisa finishing first and turning back to me.

"How is that your fault?" she asked.

"We were a distraction. The kidnapping happened at the same time as our bank robbery. Our boss used us as a distraction," I answered, not believing what I was saying.

He wouldn't have needed us as a distraction to go after Parian. He might not have needed us as a distraction to go after Dinah either, but it said something about his planning that he set it up anyway. Redundancies.

"So what?" Brian asked.

I looked at him incredulously.

"So, he used us as a distraction to go after another cape. We still pulled off the job, and from the paper, he got his other job done. Two jobs go off without a hitch, we get paid, and we made the paper. I call that a win."

I tried to calm myself, making excuses that Brian didn't have the full picture. That Parian was just another cape to him. That he had no idea I was terrified that my changing of things put Parian in danger with a man I wasn't ready or able to go after just yet. I tried and failed to do so. He had just written her off.

"Hey," Lisa said softly, reaching out to take my hand. The gentle touch brought me back to the present. Before I could even start making plans, I realized I was still going to have to face off against Bakuda tonight…

"Fuck," I said.

"You-" Brian started, before I cut him off.

"I'm fine. Don't worry about it," I said rather harshly.

"Why do you care about Pariah?" Brian asked.

"Parian, and it doesn't matter."

"You're kidding right? You go from waltzing in like a badass, to freaking the fuck out at seeing a picture of her in the paper, and you're going to tell me it doesn't matter? I might not have Lisa's powers, but even Rachel could see this matters to you."

"I don't like being played. If the boss was going to use us to go after a cape, he should have mentioned that in the planning process. Being in the dark, it puts us at risk. More risk than just robbing a bank."

"Not really."

"Lisa?" I asked, looking to her, pleading. "Tell me this doesn't cross a line. That day, you were going over the unwritten rules of the cape world. Tell me this isn't a part of it. She was a noncombatant, nearly a civilian. If our name gets linked to cape kidnappings, and the heroes, or New Wave, thinks we went too far, we could be looking at more than the usual attention from them."

"More than the usual attention?" Brian asked, arching an eyebrow, as if to say 'so what?'

"She means they might not pull their punches. Or they might start actively hunting us down. Most of the time, the heroes go after the villains when they are out in costume. We start targeting, or are seen to be targeting lone capes, they might start hunting us and taking us out when we're out of costume," Lisa answered, giving me a look that I really didn't need right now.

"But it happened and it's done. So like I said, it doesn't matter. Lets just move on," I finished, knowing this conversation wouldn't go anywhere productive.

"Ok," Brian said, hardly convinced.

I couldn't blame him. My excuse was more grasping at straws. Parian was a rogue and technically fair game. Kidnappings happened in the cape community. It was usually the taking of a weaker member of a known group to use as leverage, ransom, or for interrogations. We had even kidnapped Shadow Stalker and Director Piggott, so the kidnapping of Parian wasn't so much the issue. Well it was, but not that it was out of the ordinary, but that it had never happened in the first timeline. Lisa had tried to help cover for me by leaving that first part out, but she would no doubt be hounding me about it later today. I had my own set of questions for her later too.

"So what now?" Brian asked, trying to break the awkward silence.

"Well, we were thinking of heading out to the market. Maybe spend a little of that money we stole yesterday."

"Great," I said, trying to mean it, but still failing miserably.

"Yeah?" Lisa asked, clearly trying not to agitate me.

"Yeah. Look, I'm sorry I freaked out on you. I just… I don't know. Robbing banks and fighting heroes, not what I want to be doing, but I can compromise. Kidnapping noncombatants. No. Just no. And no, I don't want to talk about it. That's my line. One of them for now," I supplied, knowing the excuses sounded weak. They Brian didn't know me well enough to get what I was hiding. Lisa… Fuck.

Brian looked to Lisa who only shrugged.

"I'll be downstairs working on my costume some more. I'll know when to get ready to head out," I said, as I turned to descend the stairs.

I didn't have time to go after Coil tonight. I couldn't even attempt to. He would see me coming and move against me. If I went in, I'd be going in alone, facing off against Coil and all his minions. Circus might be with him. Trainwreck might not. The Travelers were there last time I checked. They might not be officially working for him, but in an attack, they would defend themselves. It might even be best to go after him now, before he had his footing and forces gathered. He might not have enough information on me to properly defend against me. I could go for an all out assault, bringing the heroes and his enemies against him. A call to Armsmaster and Kaiser could get them moving. But doing so would tip my hand, and he might not even be there when I attacked. No, not exactly. He might be there in one world and not be there in another.

Worse, what I had ultimately feared when things didn't make sense, was that he might have Dinah. If he did, it would nearly be over for me. In Brockton Bay at least. No, that wasn't right either. It had taken him until after the party crashing to get a hold on her enough to introduce us. Or had he? He might have held off until he was sure we were worth bringing into the fold. He could have been waiting on confirmation on Trainwreck, or Circus. Or there were a million other reasons I hadn't become aware of Dinah until then.

This wasn't helping, I didn't have enough information to go on. I was lost. So much of my planning was based on having the upper hand information-wise. I'd have to be sure. Coil shouldn't know I knew where he was holed up at. If he was keeping her hostage, he would have her there. My range was such that I could just sit in the coffee shop in downtown and scout his whole facility. A single pass through could at least confirm she was there. I'd be checking for Dinah again too. He might have started with her at another location until Noel was sealed up tighter. For this to work though, I'd have to make up my mind to not do anything about them, even if they were there.

I hated thinking that, having the option to act, I shouldn't. Recon. That was all I could commit myself to. Any more and it could ruin everything. How and when would be the issue. My 'teammates' would want to head out to the market soon. Lisa would want to grill me. Any absence on my part during or before then would be noted. I could trust Lisa not to report it to Coil, and none of the others had a direct line to him, but there might be other eyes on us.

No, I was getting too paranoid. My only enemies right now were the ABB and maybe Accord, if he had failed to deliver that message. Making up my mind, I stopped my bugs from weaving any further. I threw on my pants, a hoodie, and my backpack. I wrote a note for Lisa telling her I'd meet them at the market in two hours, and headed for the nearest bus stop. I had bugs carry it up to her. I felt her get it and sigh before they were out of range. I couldn't let this rest until I knew. Bonding with the Undersiders be damned, I wouldn't be responsible for Parian being kidnapped.

0

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0

I had hopped in a cab from the nearest bus stop. Time was a factor, whereas the $20 it would cost for the ride, was not. I had the driver take me to the coffee shop, an easy enough destination to find, being the only one across from the new construction. Not that the coffee shop was unique, but that there really weren't that many buildings going up in the downtown area.

Arriving at the location, I paid the driver with a bit extra in tip and made my way inside. I recognized the girl who had served me the last time I was here. She smiled at me, no doubt remembering the hundred in tip I had left her. Taking a seat with my back to the wall, near the window, I took out my laptop. My range was down to the lowest levels of his facility, but doing a complete yet discreet search would take time.

"Hi there, can I get you anything to eat or drink?" she asked, rather chipper.

"Tea, black."

I wasn't interested in being friendly right now. I also didn't want to cause a problem and draw attention either. I was agitated, but at least now I could do something about it.

I started feeling out where there were bugs in the building. For now, the facility was all underground. Three basement level floors were enclosed and being worked on. Another three were built but not habitable. I remembered the rest of the underground levels would all be parking. At the moment, they were little more than columns, rising up from a concrete slab.

My first focus was on Coil's personal chambers. His chamber was devoid of bugs, but he had a private escape route that connected with an existing stormwater drain. There was a plethora of bugs, though I only brought in the most discrete. They entered the room one at a time, moving in the shadows or flying up to the ceiling. it was easy enough to locate Coil in the room. He was typing at his computer. I placed a few bugs on him to make note of his whereabouts. I then began searching the rest of the facility, secure that others wouldn't notice my bugs as well as Coil.

The Travelers were in partial attendance. A boy I assumed to be Oliver was keeping Noel company. She was still in the same cell, with nothing more than a security grate blocking her departure. Trickster was absent, as was Sundancer and Ballistic. Genesis was in a bed, near her wheelchair. Clearly they were pulling something.

Odd, I didn't remember them doing anything significant until Bakuda went on her bombing spree and they stepped up to help. It might be benign, but given the deviation of events from the first timeline, I couldn't be sure.

I continued my search from top to bottom. I found nothing of use. The room the first Dinah had been held in was empty. It was being used as side storage. Worms in the dirt weren't finding any side bunkers either. There was no Dinah here, nor was there Parian. My efferts here were fruitless. It was possible that Coil had them held up at another location. To find it though, I'd have to be constantly watching him. I'd also need to hear through my bugs better. At the moment, I was still only getting garbled words. No one was really talking, except for a few barked orders for construction, and Oliver talking to Noel.

This proved to be fruitless. I was still at a loss for why this had happened. It could make sense if Dinah was directing his moves. It would have been similar to Tagg going after me at the school, with seemingly illogical moves leading up to my ultimate surrender. This would be a nightmare. I had hoped Dinah would be on my side once she got a glimpse of the future, but that might have driven her to work for Coil. That or I was overcomplicating matters.

Sadly there was little more I could do about it now. I would be needed tonight, and couldn't stalk Coil. That could come later. I had planned on other missions during that time… I'd have to think more on what to do about this later.

I signaled the waitress for a check and she came over with it rather quickly. I paid her with a hundred, again. I could spare the money and it kept her from hassling me about being in a coffee shop that I was clearly not supposed to be in. It was the most convenient location for spying on Coil and had the added benefit of not having working security cameras. I had my bugs chew through them before I came in the first time. They still hadn't fixed them, which meant it was only the few patrons who might notice a blue collar teen in an otherwise adult 1% coffee shop.

Taking a cab, I made it down to the market relatively quickly. A little more than two hours for my errand, and I was back with the group.

"Taylor!" Lisa shouted, as I approached.

I had found them from a distance, using my bugs to scan for the right number of people in a group first, then by size, and gender. It hadn't taken long to find them, and it saved me a phone call.

"You're late, dork."

I was so not happy with that nickname again.

"Relax, we were only here for ten minutes max," Brian said, giving Alec a punch on the arm. He shot an apologetic look that was still wary.

"It's cool," I said, and meaning it.

"Come on," Tattletale grinned at me, grabbing my wrist, "I'm stealing you."

"Oh yeah?"

"We're going shopping," she told me. Turning to Brian and Alec, she said, "We'll split up, meet up with you two for dinner? Unless you want to come with and stand around holding our purses while we try on clothes."

"You don't have any purses," Alec pointed out.

"Figure of speech. You want to do your own thing or not?"

"Whatever," Alec said.

"You're a jerk, Lisa," Brian frowned, "Hogging the new girl to yourself."

"You get your morning meetings and training sessions with her, I want to go shopping, cope," Lisa stuck out her tongue at Brian.

"Alright," Brian shrugged, "Fugly Bob's for dinner?"

"Sounds good," Lisa agreed. She turned to me, eyebrows quirked.

"It's been a long time since I ate there. I'm down."

"Don't spend so much you draw attention," Brian warned.

"Got it," I said.

Lisa and I turned and left.

"So how was your errand?" she asked, now that we were out of earshot of the boys.

"She's not there. If he took her, he should be holding her there, but he's not. I searched the whole building and found nothing indicating he was involved."

"So he wasn't?"

"Do your powers say anything?"

"At this point, you know more than I do. I'm getting an 80% he was involved on some level. My powers not giving me anything on why though, or where."

"Is he the kinda guy that would have a secondary base somewhere? Someplace he might hide someone until his main base is set up?"

"He has the personality for it, and the money too, but he might not have had the time to do so yet. His main focus is on getting his main base up and running. I can poke around some and see what he might be up to."

"Thanks," I said.

"But…"

"But?"

"I wanna know why?"

"No."

"Come on, I covered for you with Brian earlier today. You know this cape. You know her personally, and you take full responsibility for her being kidnapped. It's like something you and only you did to get her kidnapped. It's more than just pulling the bank job, and I could tell that without my powers."

"I'm sorry Lisa, but no."

"Fuck, when are you going to trust me?"

"When Coil is dead."

She stopped to look straight at me, grabbing my arm while doing so.

"Taylor… I'm not… Why? Why cross that line? You know the rules of the game?"

"It's only a game so long as everyone plays along. Lung. Coil. They don't play the game. They don't care about the rules, or the players. They kill without regard, manipulating people and the system."

Lisa held a hand up to her face, staring at me for a long while.

"You do too…"

"I…" I had to stop myself. I couldn't lie to her. I had killed, though I'd like to think I had done so with regard.

"I think we should drop this for now. Just for now," I said, forestalling the inevitable argument. I really didn't want to go down this road with her. Not yet. Yes, I was manipulating people, her and the Undersiders included. I wouldn't be able to justify doing so without telling her about the end of the world. I wasn't about to play that card untill Coil was dead.

"How long are you gonna keep saying that? I know you want to kill Coil now, not just one-up him. What could be so important?"

"Can't we just go shopping. I could really use some new clothes."

"You're frustrating, you know that? Fine, lets go shopping."

Before she turned away I grabbed her hand.

"Thank you. I really mean that. I know I'm being really difficult right now. I don't want to be, but I am right now, so thank you for putting up with me."

"Just promise me this secret is worth it. And I'm sorry too... About your friend."

I could only nod in response.

0

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0

A new wardrobe, a bit of a talk about boys and to tone it down with Brian, and we were on our way to Fugly Bobs.

We sat at the same table outside and Brian gave Lisa and me the same lecture about purchases. It felt rather nostalgic.

A big difference was my distraction. I was managing swarms of insects that I had been collecting during our shopping trip. They were kept dispersed in the places few people tread, in walls, ceilings, under the boardwalk, and generally out of site. Tens of millions under my control, it was the most I had gathered since I'd been back. I felt tingly in an odd way. Pushing my power out, not in range, but in numbers. Most were being kept from eating the others or trying to leave my range. My new spiders were weaving threads for tonight. Bakuda wouldn't see what hit her.

"So how'd you get to be such a badass villain?" Alec asked me, breaking from their original conversation.

"With practice," I said without thinking.

Lisa elbowed me in the side hard enough I dropped my burger.

Looking up I could see Brian and Alec staring at me.

Crap.

"Practice being a villain? I thought you said Lung was your first night out in this city?" Brian asked.

"It was," I said sticking to the original lie. "At least my first night out in costume as Monarch."

"So you've been out in costume before then?" Alec asked. "You go by another name before going out as Monarch?"

"Yeah," I said looking down at my burger. "But I'd rather not talk about it."

"You suck your first time out? Something embarrassing?" Alec asked.

"No, just…" I shut my eyes, taking a deep breath. "It didn't go well. People got hurt. Friends. I'm trying to do better this time around. Do better by them."

I felt Lisa's head snap to look at me.

"Parian?" Brian asked.

I looked up at him. His face was sympathetic.

"Who?" Alec asked.

"No one, it's not important. So how'd you guys make out shopping?" I asked, desperate to change the subject.

Alec looked between me, Lisa, and Brian, aware he was missing something.

"Brian got you something," he said.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, it was meant to be a surprise," he responded hitting Alec hard enough to make him yelp.

"It can still be a surprise," I said, smiling a little.

"It wanted to get you something as a welcome to the group, and sorta to apologize for this morning."

I really wish they would just drop it.

"And for bringing it up again just now," Lisa added.

"Crap, yeah that too."

"You get anything else?" I asked Brian.

He grinned and went back into his bag. He brought out his statue.

"Yeah, so I know you mentioned you'd be up for making new costumes, and I saw this and thought, this had a freakish looking face. It might be cool to move to something like this from the skull."

I took a look at the statute. I had forgotten what it looked like. My mental picture of it was what Brian's costume ended up looking like. Funny how those notions change over time.

"I can make this work. Do you want the whole costume to match this?"

"I don't know, yours is pretty cool. What ever you think is best."

"Free reign on your costume design?"

"Maybe show me stuff as you go."

"It will take a while though, just so you know."

"How long is a while?"

"Mine took months to make, but there was a lot of trial and error there. Part of it too was not having the numbers needed to get the silk made. It shouldn't take me that long though, maybe two weeks, depending on if I get enough down time."

"While you're at it, can you micromanage me one?" Lisa asked.

"Yeah, you want to keep the same costume, or change it out for something different?"

She gave me an odd look before shrugging.

"Your thoughts?" she asked me.

"A mask that protects your mouth, like Alec's."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"So you gonna make me something?"

"I won't forget about you, Alec. Or Rachel."

"Really? You gonna make her a costume? You know she doesn't even wear a mask right?"

"She's never really had a secret identity. Doesn't mean she should broadcast her face," Lisa interjected.

I had managed being exposed for a time, but I had the respect of many of the residents in Brockton Bay keeping me safe. Later in Chicago, my face wasn't as well known and I had the benefit of being a hero at the time. Rachel had none of that going for her. She was a known killer and was fair game for any heroes that crossed paths with her.

"I'll make her something anyway," I said.

"Dork."

A group of college guys picked that moment to come outside.

I was done eating enough that I was ready to go, half a burger still uneaten. I picked at the fries thinking of costume alterations as the others finished their burgers.

Their conversation died out as they went back to eating. We left shortly after. On the walk home I was mindful not to ask about trigger events, but I did ask about Brian's other job. I got the rundown of Aisha's story. An hour walk back to the loft, and I was gathering more and more bugs as I went. I was thinking about the coming fight, planning out the steps I'd need to take to make sure everything went to plan.

When we got back, I took my purchases up to my room. I beat Brian there, so no surprise awaited me when I dropped my stuff off.

I came out of the room only to run into Brian.

"Hey, I only see two dogs here. Rachel's not in your room is she?"

"She's not here, I just scanned the loft. Suit up?"

"Just grab your stuff, we gotta take a bus to the train yard first. Fuck I really wish she wouldn't just up and leave like this. We drop the stuff off and she isn't there, it looks bad on us."

"Go tell the others. My costume takes a bit more time to get together than yours."

Brian turned with a nod to head over to let the rest of the group know.

I packed quickly, stashing my gear in a duffle bag. I had purchased a hip holster for my gun, stashing two clips in my back panel. My knife was sheathed up there too. I had collected the weapons from my first fight against the ABB. From them I had several handguns and knives. I hadn't bothered with the blunt objects. I'd hand out the guns and knives after I had the rest of my stuff together. I grabbed my pepper spray, an unused disposable phone, epipens, notepad, pen, roll of quarter, tissue paper, lighter, ranged taser, standard taser, and my batton.

I didn't have much room in my backplate for much else. Even what I had was getting unmanageable. I'd have to find a better way to carry my gear later. It made me envy Circus for her ability to carry all her gear in mini pocket dimensions. Maybe if I got a hold of Dodge, I could get him to create a utility belt with endless pocket dimension pockets.

I felt Lisa approach my door, and I opened before she had a chance to knock.

"Need any weapons?" I asked, indicating the bed with the hard won guns and knives.

"These from the ABB fight?"

"Yep, didn't see a reason to just leave all the loot."

"Wow, um, I have a gun, but maybe a knife? I don't see any sheaths though," she said looking at me expectantly.

"When I took their weapons, they didn't come with extra clips, holsters, or sheaths."

"Or ammo," she added looking the guns over.

"I have ammo in the drawer,"

"That's just for your gun. Most of these can't use that size bullet."

"Looks like I'll need to go shopping again."

"We'll be fine for tonight. Rachel headed out early. She wouldn't cut and run… Not without taking all of her dogs," Lisa amended.

"No, but it never hurts to be ready. In our world, as villains, we have to fight everyone."

"You think we are gonna have a fight?"

"The ABB took a big hit to us. They are gonna need a show of force against us. They can't have a group of kids showing them up. How would it look if we lost to a group of toddlers?"

"Well shit. Alright, hand me the bowie knife. The long blade with the finger hole," she added at my obvious confusion.

"Hey you guys ready to… oh. Wow where'd you get all the gear?" Brian asked.

"The ABB fight. Grab a knife and gun, I'll get Alec in here for one too," I said stepping out into the hall. Alec was sitting on the back of the couch, feet on the cushions.

"Alec, go into my room and grab some gear."

"I have my gear," he said twirling his scepter.

"Get a gun and a knife."

"Why?"

"'Cause if it turns into a cape fight, you might be fighting someone who can trump your power. That happens, you need a backup plan. A gun is a great equalizer."

He just twirled his scepter, switching it on every few seconds.

I didn't want to argue, so I went back into the room and picked something out for him, grabbing a revolver and switchblade. Brian was hefting a handgun, turning it over as I left.

I tossed the knife to Alec, who promptly dropped it.

"What the fuck? I said I didn't want it."

"Don't use it if you don't want to, but take it anyway."

"You're not team leader here."

"Just take the fucking knife, Regent," Brian said, coming from my room holding his new weapons. Had grabbed a butterfly knife and the heavy gun I had seen him handling.

"Whatever," he said, stowing the switchblade and gun.

"Should we bring Judas and Roxane?" I asked the room.

"Why? Rachel ditches the dogs, why should we bring em?"

"You've been with Rachel longer than I have," I started.

"She wouldn't leave her dogs if she was gonna screw us over. She went ahead when we showed up late," Lisa finished.

"I just tried calling. Her phone is out of service, which it shouldn't be, since I was the one who turned it on, activated it and gave it to her earlier today. Something's up," Brian said.

The mood became a lot more serious. The rest of the group exchanged glances. I didn't need to: I knew we were in for a fight.


	16. Mandible 2-6

2.6 Mandible

The sun was setting as we made our way. We took the bus from the derelict ferry station and got off at the Trainyard, situated opposite from the boardwalk. I had big plans for this area once I ruled the city. From the bus stop, we passed around the back of a derelict building and suited up.

My bugs had followed, clinging to the bottom of the bus and moving in a very dispersed swarm, filling out my range in a two-and-a-half-block bubble. To an onlooker, it might look like a bit of a haze. Hopefully the dim light could help disguise its presence.

Getting my gear on, I filled out with my bugs. They infested my hair, and linked together to form a cape. My deadliest bugs were buried in the folds of my costume and underneath my armored panels. The rest stayed at a distance, scouting the surrounding area, but still staying out of sight. I didn't want to advertise the full extent of my arsenal and abilities just yet, not that anyone was paying attention, but using too dense a swarm could draw that attention. Lastly, I drew my monarch butterflies to me, coating my body in them. I had a purpose for them tonight, aside from instilling Lepidopterophobia in my enemies.

There was no joking or conversation as we got ready. Tattletale hadn't even asked about my slip-up at dinner. I was grateful she hadn't pried, but keeping this a secret from her was getting difficult. Keeping her in the dark was seeming less and less possible the longer I was around her. Part of me did want to confide in her, just to have someone who could understand the burden I carried. Sadly even speaking the words aloud could damn us all.

Bugged up, I moved to join the others. Tattletale approached me, out of earshot of the rest of the team.

"I texted the boss that Bitch is missing and we're checking on the drop. He said, and I quote 'Be violent'. Not something he usually says going out on a job," Tattletale said, giving me a knowing look.

I nodded and we joined Grue and Regent. We walked past a chain link fence. The long-abandoned boxcars off in the distance were sitting like tombstones. Overgrown with weeds and crumbling, they made the trek feel rather foreboding. We were walking into a dangerous situation, one I had almost lost my life in last time. This fight would still be just as dangerous. Bakuda was still unpredictable, and I planed on pushing her buttons.

As we approached the maze, my bugs started touching on the first of our enemies. One or two at first, then a group of ten. Pockets of these people were popping up all over the place. Bakuda could easily have a hundred people in the area. Facing them all at once would be a disaster, but if we could keep her playing a game of cat and mouse, things would be much easier.

Making our way through the rows of ten-by-ten storage containers, my bugs could track the people moving about, just out of sight. They had scouts who were pacing us, others moving to close off the path behind us. I also noticed Uber and Leet's flying camera keeping pace with us. I had come to think of as the snitch, a discreet, almost invisible floating camera, broadcasting our approach to any number of viewers. There would be a time delay before broadcastings went live, but Uber and Leet would likely have a screen on hand without the time delay. I made sure to place a few bugs on it to track its movements, and field of view.

I had to give Bakuda credit, she had planned this trap out rather well. My first time through I had too few bugs with me. I hadn't been able to scout anything. Today, I had the largest swarm I'd ever controlled in this timeline. It was exhilarating on a mental level. My brain felt… tingly.

"We're looking for thirteen-oh-six," Grue said into the silence. Passing through the lockers, I made note of which ones had people hiding inside. I took the time to block up muzzles and hammers, starting loose threads from the trigger guards to be used later. I found the jeep before we found the locker. Bakuda was sitting in the back with a laptop watching something my bugs couldn't see. I found a sturdy pipe of an above-ground water main, and began tying the axle to it. It would require my black widow silk, and a lot of it. I had brought several thick lines of corded silk under my cape. While the others were looking for the 1306 unit, I let it descend to the ground, using my bugs to keep it quiet. Once on the ground, I had a swarm drag it off to be used to tie the jeep.

The largest clump of people was up ahead. That would be near our storage locker. No doubt Bakuda wanted them in place for when she struck, but I found it odd that they were already in place. It made me wonder how long that many people could be holed up in these containers for. Were they waiting for us for hours or what?

We made it to the container without incident. I tagged two individuals who were discreetly climbing the back side, obviously Uber and Leet. The locker was already emptied. This I could tell even before Grue spotted it. The rest of the Undersiders approached the locker, with Grue taking out his key to open the lock.

"Shit," Grue said, seeing the empty locker.

"I vote we kill her," Regent followed.

"Wasn't Bitch," I answered.

"If you said that five hours ago, I might have believed you," Regent replied. "I would have told you, sure, she's a loose cannon, she's reckless, crazy, she's easily pissed off and she'll hospitalize those people who do piss her off… but I'd have said she's loyal, that even if she doesn't necessarily like us-"

"Still wasn't her," I cut him off. I signaled for them to be quiet, then held up two fingers and pointed to the roof.

The mood changed as Grue dropped into a fighting stance, Tattletale withdrew her gun, and Regent brought out his scepter. Uber and Leet were still just a step back from being visible. I signaled Regent and Tattletale to walk to the far side of the corridor, while Grue and I stayed at the locker door.

"It was another villain most likely," I continued. "The incompetent kind, not able to pull a real job, nor one that would have an operation up and running that they could just coast on. These guys would have to be at the bottom of the barrel to try and pull one over on us. And they'd have to either be stupid or desperate to ever steal from us."

A slow clapping started above us. I signaled Regent to pull and both Uber and Leet dropped before us, disappearing into the darkness that had enveloped Grue and I. We were on them as they hit the ground.

Uber was closest to me, though Grue moved to take him. My taser was in hand the moment I was hidden. I sidestepped Grue as I moved on Leet.

Leet wasn't the most capable fighter, being a tinker and all. Furthermore, he had only three seconds from hitting the ground to the time I crossed the distance to stun him. The shocks were invisible and the sound was muted. Once he was stunned, I placed him in a headlock, being sure to put pressure on his artery instead of his windpipe. Tracking the snitch, I could tell it would have a good angle were it not for the darkness.

With Leet going down, I brought my focus back to Uber. He had landed on his feet, despite dropping into Grue's darkness. He was still blind, but started swinging his arms in a windmill, stepping around as if to hit us randomly. Grue moved in with his fists to try and take him down.

"Use your taser. It's why I had you bring it!"

Grue looked at me before drawing it. He almost got hit before he managed a clear attack on Uber. He went down face-first, and began convulsing on the ground. Grue struck him a second time before he moved in to place him in a choke hold. We waited for both of them to pass out before standing.

"Get back to where you started before you brought up the darkness!" I shouted, knowing he would pay attention if it sounded like an emergency.

Again Grue looked at me before moving, though he did get back to roughly where he had started. I did the same, even holstering my taser and assuming the same stance I had before the darkness enveloped us.

"Now drop it," I said, as Grue cleared the area.

I could see Tattletale and Regent on the opposite side of the little corridor staring at us. Tattletale gave me one of her vulpine grins and holstered her gun.

"Nice show-"

"Snitch," I said, cutting Tattletale off. It wouldn't do for anyone to know how good my situational awareness was, nor would I want Bakuda to think I was already aware she was here. It would change how she played our game of cat and mouse. Tattletale however looked over my shoulder, right at the floating orb with a camera on it.

"Can you bring it down? It'd be great to get the footage of these losers getting beaten in under ten seconds."

Grue and I moved forward to tie up Uber and Leet, though this time, I moved towards Uber before Grue could.

"I'm better at knots," I said, bringing my black widows out to help bind him. "T, Leet should have controls for the snitch. Think you can find them?"

Uber and Leet were wearing identical costumes. They were mimicking Bomberman, wearing blue skintight leotards with white legs and arms. They both had a balaclava of white that covered the rest of their head, leaving a small hole for their face. Goggles with dark lenses covered their eyes. Their gloves, boots, and the tip of their antennae were bubblegum pink. Lastly, an over-wide black belt was cinched at their waists.

As Tattletale was searching Leet, Grue was binding him, and Regent was looking elsewhere. After I positioned my body to block the snitch, I slipped a note into Uber's collar. Using mosquitos, I had them bite in a line on his neck, down his collar, ending at the note. I also slipped a stack of hundreds into Uber's boot as I bound his feet to his arms in a hogtie.

One more play in motion now.

"So where's Bitch then?" Regent asked.

"We can check against the recordings once we get them," Tattletale said. "I'm thinking these two followed her, let her pull out her key or even open the locker before they jumped her. They would have to have stashed her and the money someplace nearby before getting ready for us to show up again."

"Check their website. If they have the snitch up, they are likely streaming. They should have a time delay, so we might get lucky and tune in as they are going after Bitch," I added. I left out how it was unnecessary. My bugs were smelling fresh dog shit just outside my range to the North West. Bitch would be that way.

"These guys are dumb enough to keep both Bitch and the money in the same place. It should make finding them both that much easier," Tattletale added.

I nodded in reply. We might have taken out Uber and Leet too quickly. Part of my plan was to engage Bakuda here before we started a game of cat and mouse. She was just getting out of her jeep to head our way, but we would have the snitch in hand by then, and I wanted a recording of the rest of this encounter.

"Man these guys suck. I mean really, they last all of ten seconds before we wipe the floor with them? Why don't they just give up?" Regent quibbed.

"They have a mission," Tattletale said. "Spreading the word about the noble and underrated art form that is video games.' Word for word from their website. Everybody thinks they're a joke, but they're still dangerous at times. Mostly through their fuckups though. Leet sees more of his gear blow up in his face than actually working. They barely manage to keep going, using their viewer subscription to keep them afloat. Most of their viewers are just watching to see them fail."

"And Bitch got jumped by these two losers? I'm never letting her live this down."

"Not just Uber and Leet, Regent," I amended.

Tattletale went still, looking deep in thought. "They have minions, but… they are working with someone else. A local cape. Circus?"

"Close but no cigar," Bakuda responded.

All four of us turned to face her. She was wearing the same costume as Uber and Leet had, though where Uber was unarmed, and Leet had a backpack with solid holographic bombs he never had a chance to use, Bakuda was armed to the teeth. A bazooka was strapped to her back, a bandoleer of her personal explosives across her chest, thinner bombs strapped to her arms, and other devices I didn't recognize were clipped to her belt.

This could be bad. She had different gear last time.

"Bakuda?"

"Right in one," she answered in her synthesized voice.

"What the hell are you doing working with these losers?" I added.

"Oh no, not working with these losers, they work for me little girl."

"I hope they were cheap, I'd hate to think you spent serious money on them," Regent added, taking up the insulting banter.

"A few hundred dollars and I had to wear one of their costumes, but I'm not too opposed. They did pick a game that works to my talents."

"Bomberman? The outfits are from Bomberman?" Tattletale asked.

"My my aren't you a smart cookie. Then maybe you can tell your friends what we are doing here?"

"This is about Lung. You need to get back at the villains that got him locked up," Tattletale answered.

"Except that was just me, Bakuda. Bitch wasn't even a part of that fight, nor were the rest of the Undersiders."

"Your Bitch didn't get to Lung, but…" she stepped back and snapped her fingers. Thirty-two doors opened down the corridor, one to four goons stepped out, all armed. "Some of my minions took a beating from her. I think this turnaround is fair play, don't you?"

"This is hardly a fair fight," Regent groused.

"Oh poor baby." If she had cooed, it didn't translate. "You want a fair fight?"

"Yeah, maybe another fifty of your goons, Oni Lee, and Lung, and it might be closer to fair," I said, standing straight and glaring her down.

"Big words from such a little girl."

"Lung said the same thing before I soloed him. You're hardly even in his league. I'm surprised he even let you join. You, a college flunkie, running with the likes of Uber and Leet-"

She drew her bazooka, loading and aiming, all in one smooth motion. She jerked the weapon up as she fired, the grenade just clearing the locker behind us.

Regent's work.

All at once, chaos broke out. The fifty-eight goons in the corridor charged us. Grue threw up his darkness. I had prepared to go up against the lot of them, planting fire ants on everyone. At once they attacked. The screams were inaudible to me, but Grue reacted with a bit of shock, then braced for an attack.

"I'm attacking. Get the group up and over the locker, we need to get clear."

Grue said nothing audible, but moved to heft Regent up first. He was just making it over the top as Bakuda loaded up again. This time she aimed at where we had been standing when she was speaking with us. Uber and Leet were still on the ground tied up, and she was aiming right for them.

She fired and the detonation was a blast of air that sent us sprawling. The darkness was blown away in a massive gust, leaving everyone exposed. Regent was blown off the top of the locker, falling off on the other side, putting him in a corridor that ran parallel to the one we were still in. Tattletale had flown into the open locker and collided hard with the wall. Trapped, with no back door to slip out of. Grue and I were slammed into the front of the storage locker and then thrust in opposite directions. The hurricane-force winds continued to blow, forcing Grue and I appart, but also buffeting everyone else: Bakuda, Uber, Leet, and the rest of the goons in the corridor.

Bakuda had effectively negated our cover and diminished the use of my bugs, but at the cost of briefly taking her goons and herself out of the fight. The blast had knocked her off the locker, the same as it had Regent, though she was in a corridor opposite him.

I gathered myself and the few bugs that still clung to me. My bug cape was gone, many bugs torn to pieces in the blast. The ones that were in my hair had been stripped free, leaving it a tangled curly mess. I had lost most of my monarchs, five of the hundred had survived. I sent them into the air, away from the chaos. Calling the bugs that I'd kept on the fringes of the fight, I started amassing them into swarms outside the range of the continuous winds. I sent a small collection Regent and Grue's way, being careful to navigate channels that were free of the constant winds.

I still had a few bugs tucked away on each of us, letting me know that Grue and Regent were still moving. Navigating myself to a gap in the lockers, I squeezed over to Regent's corridor, getting clear of the wind to try and regroup.

"Fuck that hurt. Where's the rest of the group?" Regent asked as I ran towards him.

"Grue and T are still over there! I'm covering for Grue, but Tattletale is trapped! We need to help her now!"

"How are we gonna do that? I don't know if you noticed but we're kinda outnumbered."

"We have powers: we'll think of something."

"You're the planner. Plan."

"You're a big help Regent."

"Whatever," he said, running his hand through his hair, "just tell me what to do."

Ok, a plan. Well, none of this was going according to my first plan. Bakuda had upped the ante, going in full bore far quicker than I would have thought. I hadn't even had time to really prod at her psyche before she snapped. I'd have to take time later to figure out why. For now I had to get Tattletale out before Bakuda launched a grenade in her container. Times like this, we could really use Bitch and her dogs. They could have just torn through the locker, or taken the brunt of the assault from Bakuda.

I'd have to come at this at a different angle.

"OK, sit tight here. I'll give you a signal, and you'll go in and get Tattletale. She's out cold with a head injury, so you'll have to carry her. I'm trying to get Grue back here, but communication is difficult, I still can't hear through my bugs."

A partial lie. Communication was difficult, but Grue wasn't being directed back here. Part of this was to call the shots myself. If he couldn't talk to us, he couldn't give the orders. As much as I liked Brian, I needed to run the Undersiders.

I gathered my bugs, waiting for the wind to die down. A plan. A layered plan. I didn't just have to worry about the now, but the later, the after effects, and how this could affect things outside of this little fight.

The snitch was still above us, watching everything going on. The guy in the jeep still had the laptop open, safe from the wind, a few lanes away from us in Bakuda's direction. The first step was cover.

I directed my remaining monarch butterflies to the lens of the camera. They landed, obscuring the lense when their wings were open, but allowing sight when they closed them. The wind was just dying down when I made my move.

I closed their wings to show the corridor we had just been in. I counted to three, then opened their wings, moving out to the corridor amidst a swarm. I rushed out to the center near Uber and Leet. There I stopped, standing stock still, but infusing myself with the bugs, building out my frame, hair, and adding back a bit of a cape.

The wings closed, showing me appearing in the corridor. I remained still as a statue, letting the camera take in my appearance. I was partially obscured, using my swarm to distort my figure. I'd be damned if Greg could look at video and simply say, 'oh that looks like Taylor'.

The wings extended, blocking the view on the camera.

I checked Uber and Leet and found them breathing, but still out cold. My note was still in Uber's collar and the money was still in his boot.

Others were starting to come to. Before they stood, I ran at them, stopping out of their range.

The wings closed, showing my new location and Bakuda's goons starting to get up. To the viewers, it should look like I was just appearing and disappearing. Glenn Chambers had shown me video of my attack on the PRT building after being outed by Tagg. There, I had done things that were downright creepy. Even more so, because I'd had no idea I was doing them. Here and now, it was planned, calculated to make my motions seem inhuman and more terrifying. I needed to build my rep and that of the Undersiders. Being terrifying on camera would help, but only if I could control what was being seen and by whom. This was for the villains, not the heroes, which meant I'd have to wrap this up before the stream went live.

The wings extended, masking my movements.

I struck hard and fast, lashing out with my baton, aiming for temples. I wasn't strong enough to do permanent damage, but that's not to say I was ineffectual. I felt Bakuda rousing herself. More goons were too.

I closed the wings, showing the camera the scene with me now standing in the midst of several goons, lying on the ground, grabbing at their heads, or lying unconscious.

More goons started approaching, better collected and more heavily armed. These weren't the poor sods press-ganged into service. These were tried-and-true gang members coming at me, eight at the moment, though more were making their way back.

The wings extended.

The first to come in at me had a bat with nails protruding through it. My suit would keep it from puncturing, but the bat could still break bones. His first swing was clumsy, gauging my reaction. Foolish of him, as I wasn't interested in a prolonged fight. I felt the swing coming before he struck and was already dropping below it and closing the distance.

I poped up, slashing my knife up the side of his face and crossing his forehead.

I closed the wings as the bat dropped from his hands. He fell back clutching his face. I had bugs biting around his eyes, keeping up the pressure while I stood still for the camera. It should make it look like I remained still, while my enemies around me simply dropped. Effortless, at least on camera. Here in the corridor, I was pushing myself, risking a counter attack.

The wings extended.

I moved again. Heading towards Bakuda's corridor, but staying back from where she could have a clear shot at me. There was a goon in my way that I rushed. He had a katana, though his stance wasn't one that showed he knew how to used it. His feet were too closed together, leaving him unbalanced if I struck hard. I leapt at him, bringing my baton down as he brought his katana up to parry. The weapons connected, though he lost his grip as my full weight came down with my strike. Our bodies collided and he fell, with me on top of him. I bounced back up as quick as I could. Standing over the goon, I closed the wings.

He reached for the sword and I used my bugs to bite his arm while remaining motionless. At first used fire ants, but I sent a bullet ant I still had on me when he kept pushing through the pain. The second bug type did the trick, causing his hand to spasm, and the goon to withdraw it.

During my fight, I'd been moving bugs discretely to Tattletale. The first few were mosquitos, feeling for a pulse and checking her breathing. She was alive, though they could taste blood on her head. Not much, but any blood from a head injury could be bad.

The wings extended.

This time, I brought a swarm down on the corridor. Enough had gathered that they could block my movements. The useless ones gathered around me, obscuring me from the rest of the goons in the corridor. My more dangerous bugs went to work on the rest of the goons in the corridor, biting and stinging. I went easier on the civilians, keeping bees and wasps from injecting their venom, but still stinging.

In the distraction, I made my way into Bakuda's side corridor. I stepped out of sight just as she decided to climb back to the top of the locker.

The wings closed and my swarm relented. I moved quickly, now out of sight of everyone, including the camera. I headed to get behind Bakuda, just below the lip of the locker, and waited.

I gave the signal and Grue amassed his darkness. A wave at the far end of the corridor came rushing at the goons that were still standing. Bakuda loaded another grenade and fired. Grue was clear of the area and the wave was far enough away from us that Tattletale and Regent should be fine.

The blast was that of ice, flash-freezing the darkness in places, tendrils snaking outward. Large chunks managed not to be frozen. Of the wisps and tendrils, most collapsed under their own weight, falling to the ground and shattering.

The wings extended, blocking the camera.

Climbing quickly, I was behind Bakuda before she realized. My taser jabbed her in the kidneys and made a resounding zapping sound. Bakuda collapsed in my arms, out cold after only a brief shock. I gave Regent his signal, and as all eyes were turning to me, he dashed in to get to Tattletale.

Surrender I said, using my bugs to carry my voice through the area. Everyone froze, taking in the scene of me standing with my blade to Bakuda's throat. The look of fear on their faces was enough to tell me she had lied to them about a deadman's switch.

It took a moment, but several did start to lower their weapons. Regent was just making it out of the locker. Grue, still at a distance, was making his way around the giant wave of frozen darkness.

The tingling sensation felt like snakes wriggling over my arms and torso. It took me a second to recognize the sensation as being electrocuted before the bugs on me died.

I blocked the camera as the civilian who first laid down their weapons exploded into a ball of fire. Flames erupted as Bakuda spun around. The attack was so unexpected, she managed to knock my knife away and get some distance to bring up her bazooka.

"Play time's over bug bitch."

She pulled the trigger and the world went dark.

AN: A special thanks to my Beta Claytorpedo for his help with the story, but especially this chapter.


	17. Mandible 2-7

2.07 Mandible

"Monarch! Fuck, can you move?!"

I managed a grunt as I raised my face from the ground. I tried to get my bearings but felt too dizzy. I felt like I'd been out for hours. I looked around but couldn't see a thing, not the ground under my hands, nor my hands for that matter.

"Shit, she's loading up again!"

Who?

I reached out to my swarm. Of the two people nearest me, one was on a building loading what I took for a weapon, a bazooka or something. The other was fast approaching. The one person on the building wasn't someone I recognized, but she was loading a weapon facing towards me. I sent a swarm of bugs at her. They bit and stung but didn't inject. I wasn't about to kill someone if I didn't know why.

"We have to get out of here! Can you move?" the nearer person said in a voice I was beginning to recognize.

"Grue? Wha-"

"We need to get out of here! Come on!" he shouted, pulling me to my feet.

I winced at the motion, intense pains radiating from my right shoulder. I doubled over from the pain, feeling dizzy and nauseous though that might have been from the motion. Grue didn't wait as he hauled me bodily before tearing off along in his darkness. I couldn't see, but reaching out to my bugs, I could feel we were heading down a corridor. There were people around us, but none had a clear line of sight to us. Only the one I was attacking had on a mask. Were the rest civilians?

The running started to get to me. I pulled us to the side and barely managed to lift my mask before I vomited. I managed to keep my hair out of my face with bugs that were in my hair. Odd that there were so many dead ones among them. The live ones were the more useless ones, roaches, beetles and the like. Nothing poisonous.

"You ok?" Grue asked me. He had cleared his darkness, now that we were in a secluded area. Odd, he was wearing his old costume, his motorcycle leathers and helmet with a skull on it.

"What's going on? Who are we running from?" I asked, having cleared my stomach.

"Monarch?"

"Never heard of Monarch," I replied, spitting the last of the vomit from my mouth.

"No, we are running from Bakuda, but… you're Monarch."

I'm Monarch? And how the fuck are we fighting Bakuda? She should be in the Birdcage.

Stranger Danger!

"Cherry L," I said, prepping my bugs to strike him if he uttered the wrong words.

"Canary W, what the hell is going on?"

I relaxed a fraction, not dismissing him as a potential threat, but trying to keep from tensing and vomiting again.

"I could ask you the same question. Where are we? Why are we running from Bakuda?" I asked.

"We're in the trainyard. Bakuda is after us 'cause you started mouthing off to her when she had a fucking bazooka pointed at us. Where are the others, Tattletale, and Regent?"

"Regent? Regent's dead. I don't know where Tattletale is. Wait, let me check."

"D-dead? Fuck…"

I reached out with my bugs, searching. Grue's reaction to Regent was odd, Regent had died years ago. Back when… or not. I could feel Regent half-carrying Tattletale. She was leaning on him for support, favoring a leg. My bugs couldn't taste blood, but that didn't mean the injury wasn't serious.

"How? How did he die?"

"I… I can feel him. He has Tattletale and they are heading away from us."

"He has Tattletale? Regent? You said he died?"

"Re-"

I doubled over again, a wave of nausea taking hold of me. I retched, heaving chunks of food onto the ground, splattering my boots in the process.

"Regents alive."

"You ok?"

"I have no idea. Shit... What happened to me?"

"She shot you with a grenade. She used a really powerful flashbang. Lucky for both of you, I had you covered when it detonated. She was less than a foot away, that crazy bitch. She'd have gone deaf and blind if it wasn't for me."

"Who did?"

"Bakuda… You ok?"

"This isn't making sense, and I have a massive headache."

"You fell off one of the lockers and landed face first on the pavement."

"Face first? I might have a concussion then."

"You ever had one before?"

"I've had concussions before. It's not good. One time I punched a girl in the face in front of her dad, capes, and on camera. Stupid and impulsive but damn it felt good to wipe the stupid smirk off of her face. Just don't let me doing anything stupid or impulsive, ok?"

"Sure. Nothing stupid or impulsive. Monarch, what's the last thing you remember?"

I reached for memories and grasped the first one that came to me.

"Lung burning my arm. He wouldn't do it at first. I had to threaten to kill him."

I looked at my arm. "When did it grow back?"

"No idea, but we need to meet up with the others. Where are Tattletale and Regent?"

"That way," I said pointing. "Grue, what are we doing here? What's happened so far? My thoughts are a mess right now."

"We're picking up the money for the boss. Uber and Leet jumped us and Bakuda blasted you in the back with a grenade launcher."

"Bakuda? Leet?" I asked. Right, he said Bakuda, but both are supposed to be dead. So is Regent for that matter. "When are we?"

"What?"

"Grue, what… what's today's date?"

"The 15th."

"What month? What Year?"

"April 15th, 2011… That blast did a number on you didn't it?"

I felt sick but held back from throwing up.

2011. I had traveled back in time. I remembered glimpses. I was back with the Undersiders. Regent? I said he was dead, but I was thinking that Behemoth had killed him. April 15th? Running into Uber, Leet, and Bakuda?

"Yeah, it's the concussion. He's fine… That way, with Tattletale," I said, pointing right at them.

What were we doing? Why had they gotten the drop on us? Why did we walk into a trap? No, the question was why was I lying to them. I could have told them. I'd certainly known it was a trap before I got here. I had a range of… two and a half blocks. Right, I came back with less and I'd been building my range back up. But tonight, I'd still have had a sense of the area. I could feel that my bugs had tagged everyone in the area and noticed when others came into my range that had bugs still on them. I had to have reasons for leading them here, I just couldn't remember what they were.

"What's happened so far? When did we get separated?"

"Bakuda started blasting the area with grenades after you mouthed off at her. She shot one at us when we were trying to get over a storage locker. Regent got blasted over the top, Tattletale inside, and we went in opposite directions. You gave me a signal to move down the alley while you went head on against the thugs in the corridor. You had me make a shadow wave and attacked Bakuda when she was distracted. She was quick though and used a powerful flashbang on you. I got my darkness up in time to stop the flash bang, but you fell face first, hitting the ground hard. I got to you a few seconds later and now we are running."

"Right. Ok… I was out for a few seconds? Yeah, I have a concussion. I don't remember what we were doing. You're leading. Remember our priority is survival."

"We also need to get Bitch back and salvage what we can of the money from the bank job. Oh, and we need to deal with this fucking psycho shooting tinker grenades at us."

"Bitch?" I reached out with my bugs, feeling a little more than two and a half blocks. I could sense fresh dog shit to our north. "That way," I said pointing in its direction.

"How do you know?"

"Dog shit to our north. It's fresh so she should be in that direction. She's out of my range, so we'll have a walk to get to her, but we should be able to manage."

"Really? Cause we haven't so far. You might not remember, but Bakuda has fifty or more thugs out looking for us."

"Really?"

I checked with my bugs. I could feel over a hundred people around us. Some were clustered together, others alone or in small groups. All were armed with some sort of weapon. Reaching further I could feel imminent danger. Not to us, but Regent and Tattletale were heading right towards a group of enemies. Worse, Bakuda, after having disposed of what bugs I had first sent at her, was moving quickly towards them with a group that had been loitering near her.

"Grue we need to move now! It's a trap!"

I could feel him tense and his darkness billowed, shrouding both of us in it.

"Not here, Regent and Tattletale are heading towards a group of thugs and Bakuda is herding them there! We need to stop them!"

He took off, assuming I would follow in the direction I had first indicated. We passed by a few stray thugs. Enveloped in darkness, they couldn't attack us, nor did we bother with them. Stopping to attack would only delay us.

I gathered my swarm in the sky above, getting ready to strike and noticed something odd in the sky. A small spherical device with a camera on it was floating above Bakuda. A few monarch butterflies were hanging on the camera, some on the lens, others just fluttering about.

Did I do that?

Right Uber and Leet broadcast their fights. They first time around we had used the camera to show off to the villains when the ABB went on a rampage. I would have been doing the same thing here, but why? Was I really going to let Bakuda go tearing through the city with her bombs? I must have, or I would have taken her out sooner, stopped her before engaging her in conversation like Grue had said.

We were just about to them when Tattletale and Regent rounded a corner and came face to face with the ambush. I counted eighteen thugs facing off against them. They turned back the way they came, only to run into Bakuda's group as they closed the distance. I was lucky they weren't all shot on sight. It looked like Bakuda was going to run through her mantra. I couldn't hear her with my bugs, but her posturing, and the lack of gunfire or explosions left me thinking she was monologuing.

We were running, but I needed help moving. I felt fatigued and kept stumbling. Grue had to double back when I stopped, feeling nauseous again, but happily not vomiting. Pausing to get my bearings, I had a better grasp on where Uber and Leet's floating camera was and what it was looking at, after having placed a few more bugs on it. Its focus was on Bakuda, Regent, Tattletale, and the thirty other thugs and civilians gathered. I was far from its line of sight, not that it could see me in Grue's darkness anyway, but good to know our arrival would be a bit of a surprise for the viewers back home.

"Are my powers slowing you down?"

"Huh?"

"We're running in my-"

"No, I'm fine. No, look we need to get to them fast. Bakuda…"

I started sprinting, stumbling here and there until Grue grabbed my hand. I almost shook him off, but he persisted. He did help steady me, but I was in a near panic. Bakuda had approached one of her thugs and taken a pistol from him. I knew what was coming next, and she might not give the gun to some wimp who couldn't shoot to save his life. I couldn't remember his name, but he ended up as a puddle.

"You should stay out of this if a fight breaks out," Grue huffed between breaths. "Your concussion is really bad. We need to get clear and get you to a doctor and fast. Taking off like this without an expl-"

"She's going to make someone shoot them! It might be someone who will kill them! Regent can't stop thirty guns from going off. I'm working on the guns, but they're all bombs too. That I can't stop! We need to get to them now!"

"And you're rambling! Fuck Monarch! I'm serious, work from the back if you want to get involved but no hand to hand combat! You're wobbly and slow to respond!"

"Fuck you! I won't do nothing! I won't ever stand around and do nothing! I'm not an armchair general!"

I could feel Bakuda pass the gun off to… a child. A girl no more than twelve. Unlike the other guy, she took the gun in hand without hesitation. I jammed a few flies at the hammer, followed by beetles with harder shells. A moot point as when she pulled the trigger, she dropped the gun with a shriek before getting off a shot. She dove for the gun but as she did, I felt the bugs on her fold in odd ways.

Some bugs got much closer to one another while others further apart. I'd had bugs on her various appendages, noting her posture and positioning. Now she felt distorted, overlong limbs, bulbous features, and an extra appendage? I wasn't sure I wanted to see what she really looked like. From the reactions of everyone but Bakuda, I could tell it wasn't pretty. It was familiar in an odd way. Right, when Vista distorted the space around her at the bank job. Events were coming back to me. I could remember the bank job in both time streams.

Were were just about on them when I drew Grue to a stop.

"Build your darkness like a wave again. We'll need to cover everything at once."

"You're still staying here," he said, though building his darkness as I asked.

I could feel Bakuda approach another person, a boy a few years older. I still couldn't hear anything, as I was inside Grue's darkness. My bug hearing sucked too. I remembered I was working on it, but it was slow going. I had to take from his mannerisms what he was doing. His grip on the gun was firm, but it was pointed down. His feet were pointed at Bakuda, shoulders slumped, and head down. His left hand was balled into a fist.

Now! I shouted to Grue, Regent, and Tattletale.

Darkness descended as the boy raised the gun against Bakuda. The boy pulled the trigger, but both he and the gun were consumed in a vacuum that drew my bugs and our cover into a singularity. I used my bugs to direct both Regent and Tattletale clear of the area. String tied to Tattletale's hand was pulled by a team of bugs. The bugs weren't strong enough to actually pull her, but the pressure served to guide her well enough.

Grue rushed in and attacked some of the actual thugs from behind. With their focus on the scene before them, they were caught unawares. Being in the darkness, Grue could take down one at a time without alerting the others. He was still using a chokehold on the first guy. Slow. I'd have to work with him on taking out a larger number of enemies at a time. Using his fists and chokeholds wouldn't cut it later.

With Grue tied up with the chokehold, to Tattletale and Regent, knocking the gun from a thugs hand as he tried firing blindly into the darkness that still persisted. Bakuda, for her part, had dropped when the darkness descended. She had her face to the ground, fiddling with a bomb. I sent a swarm of bugs her way.

As we cleared a corner, we escaped Grue's darkness. Tattletale and Regent were hobbling down the corridor. I signaled Grue and he joined us after dropping the guy he had. Bakuda and her gang were still trapped, the bugs I had sent after her were focused on disrupting her efforts with her bomb. She was fighting through them, but any headway she made in one area, was undone in another. All the while, insects were cutting through her headgear, climbing down her boots, tearing into her toes at the toe rings. Thread was being weaved around the rings. Should she take off her boots, those rings would come off with them.

I caught up with Regent and Tattletale just as Grue caught up with me. He grabbed me and spun me around.

"What the fuck were you thinking?! I told you stay out of the fight!"

"I told you I'm not going to stand around while the rest of you are facing death or worse!" I shouted back.

"Or worse? Doesn't get much worse than death," Grue replied.

I looked at him with pity. Hopefully, he would never know the irony of his statement.

"Why-"

"Just shut up and run!" I said cutting off Tattletale.

We had been idle for too long and Bakuda had changed tactics. Abandoning her work on the ground as a lost cause, she reached back and drew out another bomb. Before my bugs could do more than land on it, she had it armed and hurled it. It wasn't aimed at us, but in any direction, her bombs could be deadly.

We were in the same corridor as the bomb that had been thrown. It went off, throwing a haze of yellow mist into the air. There was a slight breeze, but we were upwind and out of its range. We still ran, Tattletale leaning on Regent, me still struggling under my uncoordinated gait. I felt Bakuda toss two more grenades in other random directions. One landed in a group of her own people. The bugs on them dissolved in acid. The other flew away from everyone. The explosion killed the bugs I had in the area quickly. What it actually did, I didn't know. I moved bugs into the area after the explosion and didn't find any lasting effects.

As we ran, I steered us towards where the fresh dog shit was. I noted the camera had stayed on Bakuda and her crew instead of following us. That was fine with me. It wouldn't do to be seen hobbling like this.

Coming up to the first pile, I found Rachel in my range. She was tied up in a dog cage in one of the lockers that filled the yard. Five guards were watching over her. I felt Brutus a few hundred feet away in roughly the same condition, save for having only two people guarding him.

We went to Rachel first. Approaching the five guards, Bakuda fell out of my range.

"Slow up a bit," I said aloud to the group, putting action to words.

I took the time of our slowed approach to get a better feel for the guards. One was a child, a young girl. Two more I took to be civilians, dressed in nicer clothes. The last two were clearly gang members. One wielded a pair of uzis while the other held a machete. The two gang members stood between Bitch's 'cell' and the civilian duo. The child was also back against the door to Bitch's 'cell'. Given the position of the two gang members in relation to the three non-gang members, I got an idea of how they were forcing their cooperation without Bakuda's presence.

I wasted no time in disabling the five of them, tying off weapons to secure objects and jamming guns. When we rounded the corner, Grue dropped the group in darkness as the pair of us rushed in. Tattletale and Regent stayed back while we disarmed and stunned the two gang members, Grue attacking the larger guy with the machete while I took down the guy with the uzis.

My guy pulled the trigger on his guns, only to find the mechanics failing on him. With his guns failing to fire, he dropped the one and tried to clear the other. I didn't give him the opportunity, rushing in and striking hard with my baton, bringing it down on the gun. Before the gun hit the ground, I was following up with the baton, striking for his throat. I connected and he sputtered to the ground making choking noises. I stomped his face, breaking his nose then followed with a kick to the solar plexus.

The darkness was still up and Grue was still working on the other guy, having disarmed him and holding him down in a chokehold. I surveyed the other three. The child was cowering on the ground. The woman was turned around, trying and failing to find a way out of the darkness. The man stood still, hands cupped to his mouth obviously shouting, but I was still deaf to sounds in Grue's darkness.

I walked back out to the rest of the group. Regent flinched at my sudden reemergence, but Tattletale took it in stride.

"You'll need keys for the locker. The guy with the machete would have them on him," she said.

I turned and made my way back to the thug in question.

"Nice work," Grue said, clearing the darkness and dropping the now unconscious thug.

"You take too long to drop these guys with the chokeholds. I gave you a taser right?"

"Yeah he cut it though, so I had to change tactics."

"Right. Look for keys. T said he would have them."

Grue dropped his darkness between us, the rest of our group, and the locker, leaving the remaining three people in darkness.

"Here," Grue said tossing the keys to Tattletale, who promptly flipped through a few and selected the one that opened the locker door. She rolled it up to reveal Bitch.

"Ha! They put you in the doghouse- Ow fuck!" Regent exclaimed. "What kinda bug was that?"

"Horsefly, wait around the side Regent," I said, not at all impressed with his decorum.

Bitch was hogtied with a dog muzzle covering her face. It didn't fit right and had obviously been forced to work. The dried blood on her cheeks was evidence enough of the forced application of the device.

She looked rabid, and I didn't want word getting out about her predicament.

I sent in my bugs to chew away at her restraints and the mask. Grue approached her first, opening the cage which for whatever reason, didn't have a lock. Tattletale took one look at Bitch and headed to check the money and papers. I accompanied Grue to get Bitch free. She seemed to be without further injury, minor abrasions from the mask and rope at most.

"Those fuckers! Where's my dog?!" Bitch hollered once Grue undid the mask.

"Brutus is as short ways away. We came to get you first," I said.

"And the money!" Regent hollered from outside.

"Most of it is here, only a few K missing. Haven't noticed any docs missing yet," Tattletale replied.

"Great. Bitch and I will get Brutus. You guys hold down the fort. Shouldn't be long."

"Why you?" Grue asked.

"I know where Brutus is. You don't. And these three will need cover if Bakuda regroups, so you are needed here," I responded rather curtly. Why was he questioning me on this?

We left without further discussion, Bitch not even having paused when Grue questioned us. I had to jog to catch up to Bitch, who was heading in the wrong direction. A quick course correction and we were headed in the direction of Brutus.

We walked in silence, or near enough. Bitch seemed to be growling as we walked. Either that or muttering to herself. I didn't press for conversation, nor did she offer any.

I gathered my swarm as we approached the two guards for the dog. Again, one had a gun while the other had a blade. Both were clearly ABB thugs and I felt no pang of guilt getting violent with them. Blocking guns was getting easier. Mashing a few flies in between the hammer was simple enough.

We rounded a corner and saw them from a distance. Without warning, Bitch charged them. I had to hurry to stay with her. Both thugs were alerted to our presence immediately and turned to face us. The hammer hit chitin and fail to fire. Repeated strikes resulted in the same results though I dashed a few flies each time for good measure. We were less than twenty yards from them when we came into view and that distance closed quickly. Bitch bull rushed both of them. The one with the gun dropped his to try for a knife that wouldn't release from its sheath while the other thug lunged at her.

Bitch took the hit in the shoulder but didn't slow, making a beeline for the locker her dog was in. She reached the roll-down door and slammed it hard.

"BRUTUS!"

I closed on the thug with the knife, striking him with mine in the kidney, piercing skin and organ. He crumpled to the ground as his buddy bolted. I gave chase, tossing my baton at his legs to trip him up. He hit the ground and I pounced on him, bringing the pommel of my knife down hard on the back of his head. He went limp and I recovered my baton.

Turning, I saw Bitch backing away from the locker. I could hear ripping and crashing coming from inside. I kept my distance as Bitch let out a shrill whistle. Brutus came charging out, shearing through the roll-down door.

As the two reunited, my attention turned elsewhere. I had noticed people drifting into the area for a while now, but they had been scattered and moving aimlessly. Now a contingent of people were moving with purpose. Suddenly a vehicle came into range. The bugs I had in the area were dying on impact with the front grill, the driver, and the passenger seat. There didn't seem to be a windshield.

"Bitch we've got company coming! We need to regroup!"

"I'm gonna kill them."

"They didn't kill Brutus, you don't get to kill them."

"Fuckers," she muttered as she mounted Brutus. "And you don't tell me what to do!"

We hurried back, Bitch riding, me running, having not be offered a ride on Brutus. She beat me back.

"Incoming!" I shouted, pointing in the direction of the approaching group.

"We cut and run, grab what you-"

"No! We stand and fight!" I shouted cutting off Brian. Normally, when outnumbered we run, but we weren't outmatched by any means.

"Hey, I'm saying we cut and run," Brian retorted, sounding vexed.

"Fuck you! I wanna fight these fuckers," Bitch put in.

"We cut and run when they are on the attack, we look worse on camera. We turned them back twice or three times now. This time we route them."

"Past few times we escaped by the skin of our teeth. Last time I had to save your ass, not that you seem to remember. We aren't in a spot to put up a fight."

"Last time she caught us off guard. This time we know she's coming. Now we strike before she gets her footing."

I was already preparing an attack, drawing lines of web across their path right before they would be on us. The line was set up above head height.

"You have a plan?" Tattletale asked me.

"Already putting it into motion. Bitch," I turned to face her, "they'll be heading here, but they might not know we got you and Brutus out yet. Take Brutus, follow my trail of bugs, and post up where I show you. Wait 'till I say 'go' to strike. Avoid damaging the jeep. We can load that up more than Brutus. Grue, follow my bugs. When I signal 'dark' cover the area in darkness. You're gonna steal the jeep. Tattletale, Regent, and I will post up to lure them in."

"You're throwing me into the fray," Grue replied with obvious agitation in his voice. "I can't help but think I'm getting the raw end of the deal."

"Fine, I'll go. You just be sure to cover the whole area when I say so."

"How is it that I'm the bait?" Regent asked.

"I need you to lean on Regent," Tattletale teased. "Don't get all pissy with us now. You wanna be on the front lines fighting hand to hand?"

"Nope, bait me up then."

"You two are on board for this plan?" Brian asked.

"I trust her," Tattletale answered, giving me a lopsided grin.

"I don't really feel like running anymore, so sure, she has a plan that involves me hanging back, why not," Regent said shrugging.

"Fine, but we are having a talk about this later."

Without further argument, I laid out a trail of bugs for Bitch and Brutus to follow. They posted up opposite from me, at the locker where the spider silk clothesline was tied off to. I gathered my bugs into clones of our group minus Bitch. The mob that approached us spotted them. I could hear them relaying it to the rest of the group. I sent in a light swarm of bugs to pester a few of the thugs. There were thirty or so gathered together, mostly gang members. For that, I was thankful. I could be ruthless.

We were around a corner from the path they were taking. Three groups moving down three alleys, all parallel to each other, perpendicular to us. They'd get to the path we were on and would have a direct line of sight.

I made my way to the other side where the line of silk was being anchored. I had it thickened not just by my black widows, but by every silk spinner I could find. The two thugs had been placed in the cage and the other three were huddled together inside the locker. Out of sight and out of the fight.

I could feel the jeep round the corner slightly before the other groups. Bakuda had them stop when we came into view. She waited for her thirty-some people to amass. She ordered them to hold while getting them amped for a fight. I could see what she was doing even if I couldn't really hear her. The thugs were drawing weapons: guns, blades, and blunt objects. My swarm was dealing with the firearms before they became a problem. The blunts and blades would have to be fought off.

We all waited, none of the Undersiders venturing forward, Bitch and I holding our places, and the thugs holding theirs.

Then they charged. Two thugs took aim as a wave of ten armed with blunts and blades came at us. One dropped his gun before it was fully raised, his fingers bending back at odd angles. The other managed to pull the trigger before dropping it to Regent's powers. Both scrambled to grab their guns as the others rapidly closed the distance.

I had a bug clone step away from our group, much to the surprise of the rest of my team. Grue cast a shadow double forward. The rest held their ground. My clone started moving beyond our group and Grue's shadow kept pace. The ground in the area filled with a shallow cover of darkness, no more than a foot. Enough to mask the base of the bug clone and a way to tether the Grue clone.

The first of the thugs made it to my clone, swinging a bat at its head. It struck hard and killed several bugs on impact. Those that survived were sent into the air and I had the rest of the body follow, arcing them up into the air to collapse back down on the offending thug. The bugs bit and stung, chewing flesh and prying his eyes and lips open. Superficial damage at most. The mouth was a gag factor, the eyes were for the capsaicin laced bugs.

Grue's shadow simply engorged to swallow another thug who attacked. The third closest tripped and fell, taking out the one behind him. Done with the first thug, I split the swarm to mass attack the rest. They flowed out and over them, aiming for eyes and mouths instead of wasting time with exposed skin. The maximum effect for minimum effort. It halted their advance and one broke off to run before freezing mid-stride, his skin bubbling.

That, I knew to be Bakuda, but it was clear her reserves weren't sure. Given our displayed versatility and the little information on our group, I doubted our enemies really knew what we were capable of. It served our purposes as the reserves were less inclined to charge forth.

Bakuda was clearly having none of this and had to dispose of one of her thugs who tried to break off from her reserve group. A barked order and they fell back in line. I could feel some set their shoulders, gripping weapons tighter. They were resigned to this fight.

So be it.

AN:

Sorry for the delay. Life sometimes throws you curve balls. A big thanks to Claytorpedo for acting as my Beta.


	18. Mandible 2-8

2.8 Mandibles

I could feel a shift in the attitudes of both groups. The ABB weren't walking away from this fight, not with Bakuda murdering any who disobeyed her. My group could run, but if we took off, we'd be chased by a group that had no where to go but forward. A group that had already been bloodied and wouldn't be interested in mercy. Moreover, I knew what Bakuda would do if she got her hands on any of us. She didn't have the same respect for life like other villains in the city did. She was too new to the scene and was relying on Oni Lee and Lung for guidance. A recipe for disaster.

Crouched in my side alley, I watched as the group of thugs tried to fight off my swarm and deal with Grue's advancing shadow. It gave me pause when the shadow struck out and a thug reacted as if he had been punched in the face. I felt more than heard Regent snicker.

Coordinated strikes from Grue and Regent?

The thug recovered, but stayed back from the shadow. Of the ten sent out, eight were still in fighting shape. One was dead, but that was by Bakuda's actions. Grue and I had both put one down, but his had scrambled back and rejoined the fray. Mine was… still breathing, but didn't seem to want to get back up again. My bugs were still biting, but I was easing up on them. I wanted the thugs kept busy for now. If we dropped them all too fast, Bakuda might resort to her bombs. This was the lesser of two evils, and time would be needed to neutralize Bakuda. My bugs were already preparing for her attacks, drawing lines of silk above head height between the lockers on the main alley.

Bakuda turned away from the fight and started talking to the twenty thugs she had in reserve. Her words were quick and feverish. Despite not being able to make out what she was saying through the helmet and voice modulator, her orders were clear enough when nine of the reserves moved. They didn't charge in, but headed back to the alley they arrived from, perpendicular to ours. There they split up with one group going left and the other right.

I felt them pausing at intersections. The area was a mess to navigate. Lockers were clumped haphazardly, sometimes forming roads and alleys like the ones we were fighting on. Other times they created little plazas that you had to squeeze between lockers to get into. There were several alleys branching off from the one the flankers were moving through, many ending in a dead end before they would be behind my team. Both groups lucked onto paths that would bring them behind us. Unfortunate for them.

Bitch and I were positioned almost on top of the first group that was still engaged with Grue's shadow clone. We were both just out of sight behind a row of lockers. I signaled Bitch with my bugs, writing 'Hurt' on the wall with an arrow toward the approaching group. Putting action to words, I moved to ambush the would-be ambushers. There were four coming down my way. Another five were moving towards Bitch who didn't seem to be getting my note.

[Five thugs coming from behind,] I said, mentally kicking myself for forgetting Bitch's handicap.

With my swarm, I drew out a rough map of the area and the ambushers' approach, keeping it afloat in front of her as she moved.

Bakuda sent another five goons out who followed the four that were coming my way. I tagged them with bugs to keep track of their movements, leaving them be for the moment to focus on the seventeen thugs that were about to engage us.

[Keep them busy. I need a minute to get set up,] I ordered Regent, Tattletale, and Grue.

"Oh captain my captain!" Regent replied, tripping up another thug who had turned from the shadow Grue in their midst and attempted to charge them.

Positioning myself, I stowed my knife and baton, opting for pepper spray and a stun gun. My pouch was rather full with gear. I envied Faultline for her bandolier of gear and Armsmaster's utility belt. I was making accommodations for gear with my new costume, but that was still a ways from being ready. Making a mental note of alterations I'd need, I tensed, ready to strike.

My four rounded the corner on me and got a mouthful of pepper spray. I ducked low, casting out swarm clones in various directions. Two were hampered while the other pair had avoided a direct spray: one covering his face with his hood, the other stepping back around the corner. I didn't give any a chance to react as I stepped to the side, leaving a clone where I started. Staying low, I jammed my stun gun into the hooded one's groin. He screamed as I simultaneously had my bugs bite the other three. I didn't want his scream to identify where the real attack was coming from.

I had to hold the stun gun on him for a count of four to get him to drop. Four seconds was enough time for the one thug who stepped back around the corner to come out again and spot me. She brought down a katana at me, but was still too slow to avoid the darts from the taser I used on her. Ejecting the packet as soon as I was sure she was down, I reloaded and stepped behind the two who had suffered under my first attack. They were blind firing their weapons. Trying to, at least, as I had made sure to jam every gun in the area. I used my stun gun to safely drop one, then the other, counting to five each time just to be sure. The sword looked decent enough for me to take, along with its sheath this time. Tattletale's comment regarding the knives at our warehouse was a fair point.

As I was dealing with this group of ambushers, Bitch was dealing with her party of five in her own way. Brutus had barreled through the group, knocking all save one to the ground. The fifth had an arm held securely in the dog's mouth. My mosquitoes could taste the blood running down his arm. The ones on the ground were still down as Bitch began pummeling them. Brutus turned about in the tight corridor, dragging his victim across the lockers as he maneuvered. Bitch gave orders for him to deal with the ones lying on the ground.

[Don't kill,] I warned her.

"Hurt," she amended to Brutus.

Deciding to take another lesson from Bakuda, I moved forward to flank her and her group. I vaguely remembered something about her having heat vision goggles. Gathering nearly all of my bees to me, I started to work on countermeasures. Japanese honey bees had a defense strategy for dealing with invasive wasps. They would gather into a ball and start beating their wings, generating heat. They could survive temperatures up to 114 Fahrenheit. The American bees couldn't reach those temperatures, but they could still generate heat, hopefully hot enough to act as a decoy.

One by one, the bees started breaking off from me, moving in various directions. I kept them tightly packed at chest height, letting them warm other flying bugs to move out like extremities. I tried to gather a screen of bugs to place directly between myself and Bakuda in an attempt to block my heat signature. I had never tried this before and had no idea how this would look to Bakuda. Hopefully it would be enough.

As I was creating my bee decoys, I was keeping tabs on the third group that had broken off. They had gone in my direction, but moved several alleys past me before turning down to flank my group. They were a few minutes from being a threat to us. The larger concern was still the horde in the alley with Bakuda.

Seven were still dealing with Grue's shadow and Regent's influences. Bakuda, who had seemed content to let this happen, decided to send in the last of her reserves. A mere six, but there were the ones that seemed the most dangerous. All had guns, though only the one with a shotgun had his drawn. They marched forth, blades and blunts drawn. Large men, one taller than Grue, were entering the fray.

[Come back, but stay out of sight. Wait for my order to attack. No killing,] I said to Bitch through my swarm.

"You don't tell me what to do," she growled in response. She followed my instructions anyway.

With the new group approaching, Bakuda barked out more orders. The group seemed to pause a moment before they gave up fighting Grue's shadow. He tried to distract them further, engorging it and swallowing a pair of thugs. More barked orders from Bakuda and the five out of the shadow pressed on, leaving their two companions blind in the darkness. The pair who was swallowed weren't being attacked and had kept moving forward. Grue moved his darkness, keeping pace with them.

[Ease up on them,] I said to my group.

"You better not be hanging us out to dry," Grue groused.

He eased up on his darkness, letting the two he first swallowed out unmolested. Regent tripped up another one of the thugs in the first wave, but his buddy helped him recover. The second wave was also fast approaching, trying to time their attack to coincide with that of the first group. Before they could join forces, I gave the order to Rachel. Her shrill whistle drew attention which coincided with Brutus pouncing on the nearest thug. All eyes turned to him as I gave Grue his orders. He brought his darkness up to cover the whole alley, engulfing all the thugs in the alley along with Brutus.

I could feel the difference in the two groups of thugs. The first were panicked, having seen tangible evidence of what was now with them in the darkness. The vibrations of Brutus pounding could be felt from where I stood, let alone the twenty feet from the dog where the first group was. The second group wasn't as panicked, teaming up with their comrades when they bumped into one another. Little good it did them. It didn't matter if they kept their cool, Brutus was still the size of a truck and bulldozed over them all in the darkness.

Bakuda let out a noise I wasn't sure how to interpret. Standing from her jeep, she hefted her grenade launcher, loaded and fired. The grenade traveled half the distance to the fighting groups before abruptly stopping mid air, caught in one of the spider silk nets I'd been preparing. There was a two second delay before I realized the grenade had exploded. Bugs in the area slowed down, almost to a dead stop. I could still feel them, as they hung in the air, suspended in what must have been a time bubble.

Having been advancing on her position during the fight, I didn't give her a chance to reload as I dashed the last few feet to get to her jeep. A quick hop up to the back of the truck bed, I drew the sword and brought it across, aiming for Bakuda's foot. She was just turning as the blade made contact, sinking into her shin, higher than I intended. With a synthesized and hollow scream, she dropped, falling from the jeep. She took her grenade launcher with her, forcing me to change course. Pushing myself to the left, she fired at where I would have been coming from. The grenade sailed high and away from all of us, exploding uselessly in the distance. I drew my taser and fired the darts into her costume at her chest. I kept the taser on for eight seconds despite her going limp after five.

With that done, I stood up and surveyed the carnage. I couldn't see through the darkness, but my bugs let me feel what was going on. It wasn't even a fair fight. Everyone was blind, including Brutus, but where the thugs had to see to be sure they were attacking the dog as opposed to each other, Brutus had no such issues. He was almost prancing about, slamming his body into those around him, whipping his tail across those still standing, and stomping on those on the ground.

Satisfied with the progress, I whipped my head to the camera in the sky. I looked directly at the lens and held my gaze for a few seconds. The camera had stayed on Bakuda the whole time, but was back enough to get a view of the alley we were fighting in. When we showed this video later, I would make sure to cut the tape here.

I turned my attention back down to the cause of all this. Spiders swarmed from me, weaving around Bakuda a web that would hopefully keep her tied up. Setting bugs to scout the jeep for booby traps, I found a large wad of web wrapped around the rear axle. Bugs were put to work unraveling the web and weaving Bakuda up. With a sword nearly cutting through her leg, it would be easy enough to let her bleed out. No reign of ABB terror, no senseless deaths. No suffering of the Asian community as a result of her terror tactics. I couldn't though. I couldn't allow her to die like this. Not yet at least.

As my bugs unraveled the silk from the axle, I gathered the rest of the silk netting I had prepared to catch more grenades with. Clumping them together, I applied them to her leg. Putting pressure on the wound, my spiders wrapped silk around the leg, securing the web bandage. As the axle web came free, I used it to create a tourniquet. Using a stick nearby, I tightened it, then wrapped it again with spider silk.

"Holly shit!" Regent balked. "Is that Bakuda?"

He and the rest of the group had approached after Brutus had finished routing the rest of the thugs.

"Most of her," I replied.

"You do all of this?" Grue asked, a bit of awe seeping through the darkness he was using to mask his voice.

"And you thought she was going to hang us out to dry," Regent quipped. "I can't believe we kicked their asses like that! One minute they have us back against the ropes, then we swoop in like a boss and puts the kibosh on their asses!"

"We need to get out of here soon though. There are still random thugs roving about. A group of five split off from the rest and might be circling back. Grue, get the jeep running. We'll head back to grab the loot and make the drop off. Tattletale, any thoughts on the snitch?"

"There should be a master tracker and a master control," she said the same time Rachel asked "Snitch?"

"She means the camera Uber and Leet use," Tattletale answered, pointing up at it. "Bakuda should have a master tracker on her. The laptop should be in the jeep which will help us get the camera down."

I watched as she picked over Bakuda before plucking a keychain like accessory from the stylized gas mask. She then hopped up into the truck looking for the laptop.

"What happened to her leg?" Rachel asked, having had to warn Brutus back from sniffing too closely.

"I tried to cut it off," I replied. "Her foot really, but I'm not experienced with a sword."

"You're kinda twisted you know?" Regent commented.

"You're going too far-"

"No," I cut Brian off. "She murdered several of her own people tonight on a whim. Her leg is severance. Besides, I patched her up. She won't bleed out anytime soon, so we aren't committing murder, even on accident."

A lie. I knew I was murdering people. Just by letting her live, I was condemning people to die. It took something from me to walk away. It was part of the plan, part of the path I had chosen when I came back.

"Got it!" Tattletale interrupted before anything more could be said. "We are good to go. Grue, you wanna drive while I get this sorted?"

Without further word, we loaded up and headed out to gather the goods, make the drop, then head back to base.

0

0

0

"Hey," Brian said, as he approached me.

"Hey," I replied, keeping my eyes on the horizon, seeing the occasional flashes and knowing what I was allowing.

"Oh uh…" Brian hesitated, turning his head away. "Taylor…?"

I was standing on the roof looking out over the city. I wore the bottom of the second costume I was constructing. My chest was covered by a sports bra and the thousands of black widows I was using to construct the top half of my costume from the waist going up. I was rather exposed, but having spent a year and a half with the Wards in Chicago, living, dressing, and showering under constant surveillance, I wasn't so shy about my body.

"You wanted to talk?" I asked.

"Uh, yeah. But do you want to put a shirt on or something?"

"I'm making one, but it will be a while. Just think of it as a bathing suit."

"Right. I, uh, figured you'd be resting, or going back to your dad's after what happened."

"No, I'm not telling him about tonight," I answered. "Besides, I told him I'd be spending the night at Lisa's. If I turned up with a concussion, he'd ask more questions than I want to answer."

Not to mention I had enough to work on here. After the successful drop, there were several new species of my special request bugs waiting here at our hideout. I was working on feeding and breeding the majority of them. Some, like the ironclad beetle and darwin's bark spider, I would use to assist with our costumes. Others, like the titan beetle, tiger moth, and tarantula hawk, were for offensive purposes. All needed time to breed to be useful. From the local stock, I was crafting chitin panels intermixed with black widow silk. Drawing from my two years of field testing and experimenting with my gear, I was crafting new pieces that provided optimum coverage without the loss of mobility. Starting with my claw like gloves, I was adding these to my costume as they were built. I was hard at work downstairs in the warehouse all the while holding a conversation with Brian.

"He doesn't know what you do?" he asked.

"Does your family?"

"I'm fighting my mom for custody of my sister. I'm not about to tell her I run around at night as a villain. My dad, well he's not one for conversations, and if he knew I was a villain, he'd… Probably knock my ass out."

"But your sister knows then?"

"Yeah. I told her about me… and a bit about the team. I figured she has a right to know. You know younger siblings of capes have a high chance of triggering right? I wanted her to know what's coming."

"And how did she like that talk?"

"She was a bit of a bitch about it actually, made a few comments about telling mom to fuck with my case. She wouldn't do it," Brian added hurriedly, "it's more just to fuck with me than anything. She doesn't want to go back to mom and thinks it'll be easier at my place than dad's. That doesn't mean she'll be taking it easy on me though."

"Mmm…"

"You don't think I should have told her?"

"You telling her about who you are? I think that's your business, but did you tell her about the rest of us?"

I could tell by the look on his face he had. Not that I needed to look at him to know, I had found out first hand when we were at his apartment and Aisha had showed up with the social worker. That would be sometime this week. I couldn't remember the exact date, but it was the week after my concussion. Disconcerting how I got another one fighting Bakuda. I wanted events to repeat as they fit with my plans. That didn't include the concussion though. There had been a few other parallels, like the bank job, that had me worried.

"I didn't come out and tell her who you all are at first," Brian amended, interrupting my thoughts.

"At first," I replied. "But she does know."

"Look, my sister isn't stupid," Brian blurted, sounding defensive. "She figured it out on her own. She looked up when I was gone and when Grue was out and about. She made note of the times I came back with injuries worse than I'd get from the gym. She confronted me, and I couldn't lie to my sister."

"Never having had a sister, I can't tell you if you should or shouldn't lie to her, but tell me you didn't give her our names?"

"What? No, I just use cape names when I talk about the team to her."

"Brian, I get that you trust your sister with what you do, but I can't trust her with what I do. Not without knowing her personally. You understand, you and I are the only ones who have family to protect. I don't tell my dad about any of this. I do that to protect me and the rest of the team. If he doesn't know what I do, or who we are, he can't make a mistake and let something slip."

Or try and stop me.

"Aisha knows better."

"She's what, thirteen? Fourteen?"

"Thirteen."

"Were you that good at keeping secrets at thirteen?"

"Shit. Look I didn't come up here to argue with you, I just wanted to check on you, and… well, I guess I did want to talk about tonight, but now I'm not so sure," Brian hedged.

"You want to know why I did what I did. Why let Bakuda go after everything that happened?"

I had made my decision, remembering what we were doing this for. Events had to repeat themselves to a degree. Chaos, suffering, conflict. These were needed to draw Leviathan. Or perhaps we only needed Noel in the city for him to come. Hard to say. Later analysis had shown a pattern with Endbringers targeting cities with powerful capes. Alan Gramme, Andrew Richter, and Phir Se were a few that came to mind. Each targeted by one of the original three Endbringers.

"It might have been better if I hadn't let her go. To think she did all this?" I gestured to the city. "Of course, hindsight is twenty twenty," I said, knowing full well the irony of that statement. I was glad Lisa was on the phone with Coil in the kitchen. If anything would give me away to her, it would be a statement like that.

"I guess your right. Even still, all this?" He gestured to the most recent detonation. "Not really what I had in mind when I started going out in costume."

"No? Why did you first start going out?"

"I might have told you already, but I got into this for my sister. After I triggered, I set my mind to getting her away from my mom and her boyfriends. My dad didn't want to fight me on it, but my mom was giving me hell. I needed money to hire an attorney. I went out a few times and robbed places here and there. When I got enough money for the lawyer, they told me I needed a steady home environment with provable income, among other things. I was worried I was stuck for a while. I was only able to afford the lawyer in the first place through stealing. I couldn't declare that income on a tax form as a legitimate source of income, so I needed a job I could declare one that brought in enough money to actually support myself."

"Enter our boss," I supplied.

"Yeah, he pulled us all in together. He got me set up with a dummy job, where his checks filter through. The dummy job exists, employees, employer and all. That boss gives me a stellar recommendation to the social workers and helps establish me as a valid guardian figure. It's taken some time, but my social worker needs me to be in this stable position for a bit longer considering my age."

"You know he's just stringing you along?"

"My dad? No he gave me his blessing. He's not about to take that back."

"No, I mean our boss. He isn't going to just let you get custody of your sister. It won't be that easy."

"I get that you don't trust easy, but no. Just no."

"Think Brian, and I mean really think about it. What happens if he gives you full custody?"

"I get full custody."

"And do you stay with the team? Do you keep working for the boss, or maybe start doing your own thing? You said you got into this for your sister, but once you get her, there is less reason for you to keep working with the boss. He loses leverage once you get her, or he works things to keep pressure on you. Maybe you fail a follow up check and you have to go through litigation. Maybe your mom wins an appeal. Really though, what you should be asking, is why don't you have custody yet?"

"I can only go by what the boss has done for us so far. I know you didn't like just handing the money over to them, but every time before now, he has followed through," Brian replied, putting his hands on his hips. "He will follow through with my sister. I'm going through all the steps to get her back and our boss has been helping me all of the way. I trust him with this. It's not like he couldn't have screwed us over in the past. Hell," Brian continued, throwing up a hand and turning his head to the side. "I was where you are when we pulled the casino job. After working hard for that money, to just give it away blindly, I felt the same way you're feeling now."

"Brian-"

"Taylor, really. It's going to be fine. The boss will pay us like he always does. And let me worry about my sister."

"Brian, if the boss could get you custody of your sister tomorrow, would you expect him to? If some loophole presented itself to him that he could exploit, being such a good little minion for him, would you expect him to do it for you?"

"Where are you going with this?"

"Really Brian, how hard would it be for the boss, or us even, to plant drugs on your mom, have cops search her, find them, arrest her, and then have her rights to Aisha denied?"

"I thought about that already. I doubt I'd even have to plant anything on her, she was always using. But I'm not gonna screw my mom over like that. I might not like her, but she is still my mom. Asside from that, my sister could end up in foster care, which would make getting custody even harder."

"Then how about the easier method. Bribe a judge, or a social worker. Social workers don't make much, hell I bet it would even be cheaper than paying your lawyer fees. For the social worker at least. The judge might cost a bit more."

There was a long pause and as it drew out, I resisted the urge to turn back and face him.

"Tell me you haven't thought about that?"

"Fine, you win, I didn't think about that," he said a little vexed.

"Why not?"

"I don't know Taylor, maybe I'm not as smart as you?" he said, the statement tinged with sarcasm.

"I'm sorry to piss you off, but I just thought you should know how the boss is manipulating you."

"Great! Fine! So I'm a fucking tool. So where do you fall in all of this? Why are you working with us then? What does the boss have on you that has you with us?" he replied, clearly frustrated.

"He has something I need."

"Could you be any more cryptic?" he disdainfully replied.

"You've been open with me about your family and I appreciate that, but I can't trust you with this. Not if you 'can't lie' to your sister."

I could feel him flinch at that. Good. I loved Brian, but at times he was naive. Either that or I was far too cynical.

"You can't tell me."

"No."

"But Lisa knows."

Not a question, but a statement.

I didn't answer.

I let the silence stretch between us.

I wasn't going to say yes.

That would be a lie.

I wouldn't say no either.

I couldn't tip her hand.

"I think your silence is telling enough," Brian spat.

"Mmmm," I replied noncommittally, watching the blue-green fires from Empire territory burn in the night sky.

"The real reason I came up here was to talk about tonight," Brian said, trying to reign himself in after his outburst. "You pulled some shit tonight I'm not cool with. Going in when I said not to. Staying to fight when I said to run."

"We came out with a win."

"That's not the point."

"The point is," I said, pausing, "that I gave orders to the team when you feel that's your job."

"You're too new at this. With us," he amended before I could correct him.

"I'm good in a fight," I said. "My powers puts me in a position to see the whole battlefield. I can make calls for the group to attack or retreat better than you because of that. You're good at what you do Brian. I'm just in a better position power wise to lead during combat."

"I remember you almost taking a grenade to the face," he replied, in a condescending tone.

"We all make mistakes. I underestimated Bakuda. It didn't happen a second time. It's why Rachel and I were positioned out to the sides. Did you ask Rachel about the guys that tried to flank us?"

I paused for him to respond.

"Bakuda sent out three groups to try and flank us. I tracked them and sent Rachel to take out one, while I dealt with the other."

"And the third?"

"They just left the fight. They might have tried to circle all the way around, but if they did, they either got lost, or took too long. Either way, without me calling the shots tonight, they would have gotten the jump on you."

"We could have run."

"She had a jeep. She would have caught up to you. If you would have tried to lose her in the lockers, she had the snitch in the air tracking your movements. She would have caught you, or just tagged you with a grenade. Look, I'm not trying to be mean. I like you Brian. I don't want to see you get hurt out there. That's why I took charge. I made the tough calls that got us through. Not just through either. Outside of my concussion and Lisa's twisted ankle, this victory was flawless."

I felt him standing there behind me. I could feel his shoulders rising and falling as he breathed. I never turned from the edge to face him. Not when he had argued with me. Not now as he turned and walked back to the stairs. Nor as he paused at the door, hand on the handle, and sighed.

It wasn't until Lisa came up that I took my eyes from the devastation I had wrought on my city.

"So how was the rooftop serenade?" she asked.

I turned to face her and could see the smile falter for an instant.

"We argued. He left."

"And you stayed," she replied, looking out at what was now a battle between the local heroes, Empire capes, firetrucks, and the raging blue-green fires in the distance.

"And I stayed."

"Wanna talk about it."

"I need your help with a job."

"So that's a no I take it? And what kinda job are we pulling?"

"Not the team. Just you and me."

You found something interesting at the bank."

"No, you did and it gave me an idea."

"Coil."

"No, another name. Several others actually. I'll need help dealing with them."

"And you need my help specifically to do this."

"I do."

"Great, so what's the plan?"

"I'll need to make a few calls, but we'll be looking at using the heroes."


End file.
